Where was the place to be at 1:30pm last Wednesday? It wasn’t some celebrity guest lecture at the Miller Center or a matinee performance at Live Arts or some restaurant’s grand opening. Nope. It was the Senior Center, where more than 400 flocked for a 90-minute “forum” between Fifth District congressional incumbent Virgil Goode and his Democratic challenger, Tom Perriello, marking the first debate of the race.
Organizers for the Senior Statesmen of Virginia, which sponsored the debate, emphasized that it was a forum and not a debate. Perhaps pep rally would be a better description. Many in attendance were bedecked with candidate paraphernalia, and several times the moderator had to chastise the partisans for cheering or booing at inappropriate times. It was an occasion for each side’s supporters to demonstrate their fealty as they rooted on their man.
 Taking note: Perriello, left, took heat from Goode for his lack of experience, but dished out criticism of Goode’s congressional record. |
Each candidate answered about a dozen questions on topics ranging from American wages to the war in Georgia, taking plenty of swipes at each other’s statements in the process. The major distinctions could have been anticipated. If you believe that abortion should be outlawed or that the Mexican border should become entirely fenced off, Goode is your guy. Perriello is more your fit if you think that energy issues and foreign policy require more complicated solutions than giving oil companies the option of drilling everywhere possible in the U.S., including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Goode had a knack for bringing every question back to his core talking points: immigration and drilling. He rose to his highest pitch when rebutting Perriello on immigration. The young Democrat had dismissed the completely-close-the-border approach to immigration as “a $6 billion fence that you’ll get across with a $12 ladder.”
“He doesn’t know what fence [he’s] talking about,” said Goode. “A $12 ladder won’t even get near the fence that [Representative] Duncan Hunter and myself proposed.” He then laid out an elaborate description of a three-fence system with roadways in between for the boarder patrol. “They’re not going to scale that fence.”
For his part, Perriello rarely uttered the word “Democrat,” choosing to criticize both parties with a “Washington’s-broken” theme. On immigration, he suggested that businesses should be penalized more for hiring illegal workers. As for abortion, he supports Roe v. Wade but said his focus would be on lowering the number of abortions performed. In the end, Perriello tried to paint himself as a compromiser with fresh ideas a la Mark Warner, sketching Goode as an ineffective member of a minority party who needed to get out of the way.
“This is what’s been so frustrating to Congressman Goode, is that our campaign doesn’t fit the last generation’s ideas of liberal and conservative,” said Perriello. “There’s an old playbook about this, but it doesn’t apply to us. All we care about is how to get things done.”
Goode, a Democrat-turned-Independent-turned-Republican, stood by his conservative bona fides—allying himself with right wingers like Hunter and Tom Tancredo—while dismissing Perriello as a naïve outsider who would be absorbed by “the Obama majority” to perpetuate the “highest tax increase in history.”
While the Charlottesville forum was largely a base energizer, Perriello will need the publicity that comes with such events. A poll released last week by SurveyUSA showed Goode with a sizeable advantage—64 percent of respondents said they would vote for Goode if the election were held today.
“It’s basically a name recognition contest at this point, and of course Goode wins on that alone,” says Jessica Barba, Perriello’s spokesperson. “Any unknown challenger against an incumbent would appear this way in August. We’re not worried. We’ll turn it around.”
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