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Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Joe Stanley has been raising his 6-year-old niece, Mary, in Franklin County.

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CALLAWAY -- It's not easy to figure out Joe Stanley.

Looking at his now-defunct Web log Perseverando and its plethora of computer-altered images, one might see an edgy satirist or political hit man.

In one image, former Sen. George Allen stands with a road map and a confused look, trying to find his way to Election Day. In another, President Bush dances before a mariachi band as part of his "Not Amnesty" tour.

Then there's the behind-the-scenes role that Stanley played in unseating Allen last year, by first recognizing the significance of the videotape showing Allen calling a camera-toting, dark-skinned Democratic campaign volunteer "Macaca," which is considered a racial slur in some cultures. Stanley's the guy who first posted that video to the YouTube Web site. The rest is political history.

But for another view of the man, have supper with him and his family. Over homemade chicken casserole, sweet potatoes and turnips, Stanley gently chastises his 6-year-old niece Mary as she shows off for a guest. After supper, he prepares for a PTO meeting later in the evening.

He's spent the past couple of Decembers playing Santa for the Callaway Fire and Rescue Squad.

In this version, Stanley's a loving father who plays an important role in his rural community.

"He's a hard person to describe," said Fred Hutchins, with whom Stanley worked on Jim Webb's successful Senate campaign last fall. "He's got the compassionate, caring side -- he's one of the best fathers I've ever met -- but he has that killer instinct as well. He's going to do what he needs to do to win."

The dual sides seem tough to reconcile. But occasionally there's a moment where they come together.

In the weeks before Christmas, the Stanley family devoted the large table in front of the living room window to a ceramic Christmas village originally assembled by Stanley's mother, the late Mary Stanley. She had collected individual buildings and people to form a jolly town, and since her death in 2002, Joe Stanley and his father, Fred Stanley, have continued to add on.

Joe Stanley has added a twist, however. Tiny political signs sit in the yards of all the households -- most touting Eric Ferguson for delegate.

"The town overwhelmingly supports Ferguson for delegate -- except for the rich people," Stanley said, pointing at a large mansion, separated from the rest of a town by a fence and inhabited, apparently, by a band of fox hunters. "They support Dudley."

Political from a young age

Joe Stanley was born in 1971 and grew up at the base of Conner's Hill in Roanoke's Garden City neighborhood. His father was an ironworker, and Stanley remembers picking up and reading about Poland's Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement in union magazines while young.

He was drawn to theater and received his bachelor's degree in fine arts from Ferrum College. While there, he spent time performing with the Blue Ridge Dinner Theater, crafting the acting skills that later served his political career.

In 1995, Stanley moved to New York City "with 90 bucks and not knowing a soul."

"It was country come to town in every aspect," Stanley said.

He received his master's degree from New York University and started a doctoral program, but soon became disenchanted and dropped out to work in advertising.

He worked on multimedia packages for the New York Knicks, and he learned about "brand immersion" -- the concept of giving something added value by linking it to something else the consumer likes. It was an idea Stanley absorbed and later applied to politics.

In 2000, after working in some New York City campaigns, Stanley volunteered for Hillary Clinton's campaign for the U.S. Senate. He used his experience acting at the dinner theater and improvising on stage as a stand-up comedian to infiltrate private Republican fundraisers.

"I'd put on a sweater vest and bow tie and go to Republican events and tape them," Stanley said. "I'd have to improv my way in. I'd go to the ticket table and tell them I was there to pick up my tickets that someone left for me. The key is to pick someone on the radar but not very well-known. I'd pick an ambassador.

"They'd say, 'Well, we don't have the tickets.' I'd argue and make some fake calls on my cellphone, and finally say, 'Well, you'll have to call the ambassador, and he will not be happy.' These people are just volunteers and usually you can bluff your way in."

A change of plans

Meanwhile, Stanley continued working in advertising and also took some work designing Web sites for various clients.

Then Sept. 11, 2001, hit.

"They announced Bush had gone to a nuclear facility in Alabama," Stanley said. "I said goodbye to my family because I thought it was the end. You have that kind of discussion with your family that you never talk about afterwards. It changes the type of person you are."

The following January, Stanley's sister Melissa died of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a hereditary disease. She left behind Mary, her then-19-month-old daughter.

After the funeral, Stanley's parents adopted Mary, and he told them he'd return to Virginia after he could finish up some work with several clients. That was in February.

"My dad called me in March and told me my mom wasn't doing well and he was going to take her to the emergency room," Stanley said. "I packed up a couple of pairs of pants and drove home. I never came back, and I never saw my mom stand up again."

In early June, Stanley's mother died, also from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Three months later his grandmother died as well.

He and his father moved to raise Mary in Callaway, where they had ancestral connections.

"It was hard because there were a lot of people who thought we should find other arrangements for Mary," Stanley said. "I just couldn't fathom it. I lost my sister, my mother and my grandmother -- and they want me to give someone else away."

Now, Mary is 6 years old and enrolled at Callaway Elementary School. She's already had her ears pierced and proudly proclaims she knows the answer to 100 plus 100.

Reordering priorities

After he returned to Western Virginia, Stanley spent some time getting his life rearranged and centered on his niece.

Yet slowly but surely, he started to creep back into politics. In 2004, motivated by his family history and Al Weed's stance in favor of stem cell research, he worked on the Nelson County Democrat's campaign against U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode.

A year later, Ferguson hired him to manage his campaign against Dudley. The campaign's profile got a boost in July, when Roanoke political consultant Dave "Mudcat" Saunders entered the fray on behalf of Ferguson.

Stanley and Saunders worked together to create a campaign to topple Dudley, then a 12-year incumbent in the Virginia House of Delegates.

"It's so hard in the political business to find somebody who can do everything, and Joe can do everything," Saunders said. "If you need him to make a speech, he can make a speech. You can run him out to the press. He can design a Web site or craft a message.

"He is a full-spectrum political operative."

Saunders and Stanley applied the advertising concept of branding to try to link Ferguson with "Old-Timey Democrats" such as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman rather than national party leaders such as John Kerry.

In September 2005, Stanley scored a coup by acquiring the rights to allendudley.com, which he promptly filled with attacks on Dudley. He used computer software called Adobe Photoshop to produce parody photographs that put Dudley and his supporters in odd and sometimes embarrassing situations.

The Web site drew criticism from Republican legislators who called it overly negative. Stanley said his only regret is that the site wasn't publicized more.

"Not one thing on there was untrue," Stanley said. "Things that were parody were marked as parody. I think we take it all too seriously."

Ferguson lost his race to Dudley, but he did better than any challenger since Dudley's initial election in 1993. More importantly, he outperformed expectations and drew the attention of state Democrats.

Ferguson has all but officially announced he'll run again, this time with more backing from the state party structure.

In January 2006, Stanley unseated Gary Furrow to become chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Committee. The coup was hardly bloodless, though Stanley has avoided speaking of it except in vague terms, and Furrow did not return calls requesting comment on the matter.

"There are some things as chair I think I've done right," Stanley said. "And there are times where I've dropped the ball. I do have greater respect now for Gary's work, but I thought he'd worked hard before."

Stanley had converted an office space on Franklin Street, the main drag through downtown Rocky Mount, into Ferguson's campaign headquarters, and it's since become headquarters for the county Democrats. With a physical location, the county party is more visible than it has been at any point since Goode left the party in the late '90s.

Shortly after being named chairman of the Franklin County Democrats, Stanley embarked on two projects that set the tone for the rest of his year: He went to work running the Web site for Webb's U.S. Senate campaign, and he started a pseudonymous Web log called Perseverando.

On the Web, on the attack

Perseverando might be best described as "son of allendudley.com." It served largely as Stanley's outlet for political commentary, largely in the form of Photoshopped images.

By expanding his scope from a Franklin County race for delegate to state politics in general, he quickly drew the attention of online political observers around Virginia.

Ben Tribbett runs "Not Larry Sabato," a political Web log known for predicting state races, leaking rumors and generally serving as one of Virginia politics' most watched sites.

He has used Stanley's images on a number of occasions. One, used to mark breaking stories, depicts University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato with a hairpiece flying up and off his head.

Another grafted the face of Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly onto the body of a prostitute who is soliciting a car with media markings.

"If you look at that, there's even a reflection in the car that looks like natural lighting," Tribbett said. "It's perfect Photoshopping. His attention to detail means you have to stare at it to make sure it's not real."

But Stanley's creations have also drawn criticism. Shawn Kenney, a political consultant who also runs a Web log, shaunkenney.com, criticized Stanley's site during a talk about anonymous and pseudonymous Web logs at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

"When you have people that blog under pseudonyms or anonymously, they tend to get a little nastier," Kenney said. "This Perseverando was a case in point. ... I argued that it hurt, and if you post something online, you should have the courage to stand behind your comments."

Stanley responded by posting a Photoshopped picture of Kenney with devil horns.

Tucker Watkins, who chairs the Fifth District Committee for the Republican Party of Virginia, complimented Stanley's talents, but warned that he sometimes went too far.

"Joey is a young guy who works very hard but sometimes reaches past what he ought to be doing," Watkins said. "You like him or you hate him."

Some others have been more direct in their response to Stanley. After a debate between Ferguson and Dudley in Endicott, one man said he was going to "go upside" Stanley's head.

After Webb's November victory, Stanley's stock rose further. He's opened Yellow Dog Strategy, a media consulting firm for political candidates. He manages four clients, three of whom he's picked up since the Webb campaign ended.

The fourth is Ferguson, who is expected to make another run for delegate in the 9th House District this fall. If so, the race will likely draw statewide attention in a year in which Democrats hope to trim or even eliminate the Republican majority in the General Assembly.