Thursday, October 08, 2009
Another Perriello challenger emerges
State Sen. Robert Hurt joins five other candidates for the GOP nomination.
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From today's paper
State Sen. Robert Hurt jumped into the deep pool of Republican candidates in the 5th Congressional District on Wednesday with a political pedigree and popularity that could make him the GOP frontrunner and a potential formidable foe for U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello.
It had been rumored for weeks that Hurt, a Chatham lawyer, was considering a run. And when Republican Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount announced that he would not try win back the seat he lost last year to Perriello, D-Albemarle County, attention turned to Hurt.
"As a conservative who has represented a significant portion of the Fifth District for the past eight years, I believe that now, more than ever, our district requires a proven conservative leader to serve as its voice in Washington," Hurt said. "As I have during my time in Richmond, I will fight to promote small businesses and new jobs, I will fight against the runaway taxing and spending in Washington, and I will always be a strong voice for our common sense conservative Virginia values."
After meeting with residents and party leaders, Hurt, 40, said he decided to run because there is a feeling that "if the current course of this great country is not quickly changed, we will soon be left with a nation of more government, more taxes, fewer jobs and even fewer liberties."
Perriello, who, after a recount, beat Goode by 727 votes out 317,076 cast, is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in next year's election by the National Republican Campaign Committee. Perriello declined comment on Hurt's announcement.
"Senator Hurt's candidacy is excellent news for the legions of central and Southside Virginians who've grown tired of having a congressman who holds their values in contempt," NRCC spokesman Andy Sere wrote in a statement. "Tom Perriello has proven time and time again that his brand of Ivy-bred liberal elitism is categorically out of step with his constituents, and that's why he's drawn such a formidable challenger."
Perriello, a political newcomer, took an underdog label and ran an energetic campaign across the district last year to upset Goode. In his first term, Perriello has been active, holding town hall meetings in all 22 localities in the district on health care reform. The district stretches from Charlottesville south to the North Carolina line and west to Franklin County.
Hurt is now the sixth Republican to announce his 2010 candidacy for the congressional seat. He joins Kenneth Boyd, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors; Mike McPadden, an airline pilot; Feda Kidd Morton, a high school biology teacher from Fluvanna County; Bradley Rees, a factory worker from Bedford County; and Laurence Verga, a Charlottesville resident and businessman.
More candidates may get in the race, too, with a little more than a year left before the election, said 5th District Republican Party Chairman Tucker Watkins.
Of the six announced candidates, Hurt and Boyd are the only two with experience as elected officials. But all the candidates offer credentials, Watkins said.
"And it's a good thing to show there's huge opposition to Perriello in the district," he said.
The district committee will decide next year whether to have a primary or convention to decide the Republican nominee in the November 2010 election.
Republicans haven't had a pool of candidates this large to choose from in a long time. The last convention held to select a candidate was in 1996, and there were only two candidates, Watkins said.
Hurt has served in the Virginia Senate since 2007, when he was elected to replace the retiring Charles Hawkins. Before that he served three terms in the House of Delegates, where in 2004 he was one of 17 Republican delegates to break from the party caucus to vote for a budget plan pushed by Gov. Mark Warner and Senate Republicans.
Hurt plans a more formal announcement after next month's gubernatorial election.
