Constituents in Virginia’s Fifth congressional district keep ponying up for Tom Perriello. According to his campaign, the Democrat raised $313,000 in the second quarter of the year, which is a record for Democratic challengers to incumbent Virgil Goode. However, Perriello’s campaign doesn’t mention that Goode himself raised a bit more ($390,000) during the same quarter.
Still, the $519,000 that Perriello currently has on hand represents a major improvement, from a Democratic point of view, over the $70,000 Al Weed had in his war chest at this point in the 2004 election. Goode currently is sitting on $834,000.
One of Perriello’s major talking points is that his money comes overwhelmingly from individuals, as opposed to lobbying groups, while (they say) Goode reaps about a quarter of his funds from various PACs. Perriello’s campaign also points out that the Democrat’s funds have come in from all 22 localities in the district, no doubt to counter the widespread notion that the sometimes shockingly conservative Goode has a lock on his more rural constituents, while Perriello only draws support from certain islands of liberal thinking (ahem).
The website RealClearPolitics.com sums it up thusly: "Goode is leading, but Perriello has a shot." There are 111 days remaining until the election.
He’s raising the money, but will Tom Perriello get out the vote?