DANVILLE — Danville and Lynchburg Tea Party activists mistakenly posted the address of Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother online Monday to invite others to “drop by” Perriello’s home in Ivy and “express their thanks” for his health care vote.
The Washington-based political newspaper Politico reported Monday a Lynchburg Tea Party member posted the address, which he believed to be Perriello’s, on his blog. After seeing the blog, Danville Tea Party Leader Nigel Coleman posted the same address on his Facebook profile, which is not limited to only his Facebook “friends.”
“This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Price Perriello’s home address,” Coleman wrote Monday. “… I ain’t holding back anymore!!”
When Coleman learned the address was actually Perriello’s brother’s — Politico reported he and his wife have four young children — Coleman commented on another blog that the mistake was “collateral damage.”
“Do you mean I posted his brother’s address on my Facebook?” Coleman wrote. “Oh well, collateral damage.”
Coleman has since removed the post on his Facebook page and said Tuesday that his choice of words was “definitely in poor taste.” He said he was not aware of anyone actually visiting the address and said this was not an organized effort by the 5th District tea parties.
“A lot of us who are tea partiers, we communicate through social networks,” Coleman said. “One of the other tea partiers in another group put up an address and said it was Tom Perriello’s address and several others of us put it up on our Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
“Turns out that it was not in fact his address, it was his brother’s. That was not something we were going for. We just wanted people to get a little closer to their congressman.”
Jessica Barba, spokeswoman for Perriello, issued an e-mail statement Tuesday about the incident.
“We’re glad tea party leaders took down the address of the congressman’s brother and small children,” Barba said. “We hope that, even when we disagree on politics, we can agree about basic principles of decency and privacy.”
Lynchburg Tea Party Chairman Mark Lloyd posted Tuesday on the group’s Web site — which is not affiliated with the original blog post — that the group did not request, sanction or endorse spreading the address. Lloyd did not respond to an e-mail Tuesday afternoon.
Coleman said their intention was not to harass anyone, but “if we can take this message to his front doorstep, we will.”
Catherine Amos reports for the Danville
Register & Bee.
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