Month: November 2010

We know how hard it can be to pick out what’s worth seeing at the Virginia Film Festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday. So we put together an in-depth feature that previews some of the most talked-about films and filmmakers at this year’s event.

What should you watch? Why no Jim Carrey in the new Tom Shadyac movie? Is there room for the kind of psychological horror in Black Swan that has distinguished Darren Aronofsky’s harrowing ouvre? Find out this and more here.

What will you see at this year’s Virginia Film Festival?

The Old Ivy Road campaign office of Congressman Tom Perriello was broken into early this morning, says Jessica Barba, communications director for Perriello for Congress.

Between the hours of 2:30am and 5am, when the office was empty, perpetrators took campaign materials and “there was a Hurt sign that was put up in the front of the office and that was something that obviously wasn’t there when we left,” she tells C-VILLE.

Barba says whomever entered the ground floor office by bending and breaking a screen door took a packet of door hangers. Additionally, door hangers with incorrect precinct information were distributed throughout the Venable district.

“We found out later when we had canvassers going around that neighborhood,” says Barba. She adds that because it was caught early, this incident won’t be a huge factor in today’s elections. “UVA students, [many of whom live in the Venable district,] are pretty smart, so hopefully they’ll figure it out.”

County spokesperson Lee Catlin tells C-VILLE that police were called this morning to the campaign office and are investigating a potential break-in.
 

The crowd at Congressman Tom Perriello’s election results party at Siips is growing by the minute. Senator Creigh Deeds is watching the results closely as Perriello supporters gather around the sole TV screen.

According to the State Board of Elections, with 45 percent precincts reporting throughout the Fifth District, Senator Robert Hurt leads with 53.23 percent of votes to  Congressman Tom Perriello’s 44.44 percent. Independent Jeffrey Clark has 2.24 percent of the votes reported.

In the City of Charlottesville, with 33 percent precincts reporting, Perriello has a healthy lead—81.5 percent, compared to 18 percent for Hurt trailing. In last place is Clark with 0.55 percent.

In Albemarle County, Perriello has 51 percent of the vote to Hurt’s 47 percent, with 3.4 percent of precincts reporting. Clark has 1.84 percent of the reported Albemarle vote.
 

Here at the Albemarle County GOP election night party—at the Doubletree Hotel on Route 29, if you’d like to stop by—everything seems calm. Very calm. The chatter of the 150 to 200 guests, gathered in two rooms, doesn’t overwhelm the flatscreen TVs (provided by GOP donor Bill Crutchfield’s business local electronics business), which show results on Fox News. The crunch of red, white and blue tortilla chips is audible—along with the occasional cheer as more precincts report and confirm Virginia Republican senator Robert Hurt’s lead.

The last cheer announced a six-point lead, with 77 percent of precincts reporting. While Fox makes no mention of the fate of independent candidate Jeffrey Clark, Hurt seems to hold steady at 52 percent, while Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello holds tight around 46 percent.

According to Anita Kumar’s blog at the Washington Post website, the Associated Press has called the Fifth District race for Republican state senator Robert Hurt. The State Board of Elections reports 84 percent of precincts, and puts Hurt’s lead over Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello at roughly six percentage points. While Perriello claimed victories in both the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County,and Danville (which he carried in 2008), Hurt claimed Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties.

UPDATE: Official statement from Tom Perriello

"I congratulate Senator Hurt and, along with my team, will do everything we can to ensure a smooth transition. It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of the 5th district and I am so proud of the work we’ve done. Real change is not something that is measured in a year or two; I believe that our actions will ripple out for years to come. The best kind of politics is one that puts a sense of problem-solving ahead of political points, and I’m proud to have tackled the tough problems of our community and nation. We faced the brink of a depression and turned that around into nine straight months of private-sector job growth. I’ll continue to find ways to serve my community and my country with anyone from any party or organization who is serious about rebuilding the middle-class and the next great American decade."

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Tom Perriello stood on a stage at Siips Wine and Champagne Bar & Bistro on the Downtown Mall with his family while a crowd cheered “We love Tom,” and conceded the Fifth Congressional District race to his Republican challenger, Senator Robert Hurt.

He announced that he had just spoken with Hurt by phone, congratulated him on the victory and urged the large crowd to do the same. “Give him a round of applause,” he told the crowd.

Perriello told the room that one of his first priorities is to help with Hurt’s transition into his job in Washington, because “it’s always been about the people,” and not political parties. Perriello said he is willing to work with anybody who is ready to serve the people of Virginia.

“I’m excited tonight,” Perriello said, and added that he was “proud of what we have accomplished” in two years. He called his time in Congress “the greatest honor of my life.”

Near the end of his remarks, Perriello said that his father, who died in March of last year, told him that “Judgement Day is more important than Election Day"—that, in the end, it is most important to do what is right.

With 93 percent precincts reporting, Hurt leads with 50.82 percent, Perriello trails with 46.87 percent and Independent candidate Jeffrey Clark closes the race at 2.22 percent.

Perriello won both Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville with 57 percent  and 80 percent of the votes, respectively. 

If you don’t know your options by now, folks, you’d better study up quickly. In the anti-incumbent corner, Virginia senator and Republican congressional candidate Robert Hurt, who caught a bit of love from House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Governor Bob McDonnell, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Sunday. In the other, Democratic incumbent and defending his 2008 title (won by 727 votes), Tom Perriello, who appeared alongside another supporter this weekend.

But that’s not all. On Tuesday, Virginia ballots will include three potential state amendments (translated here in an editorial that appeared in the Washington Post). The amendments propose tax relief for disabled veterans, move the authority for tax relief for poor senior citizens or disabled citizens to local governments, and allow the Virginia legislature to up the state’s rainy day fund contributions to 15 percent from 10. Consider them other important bouts before the main event.

With all of the e-mails, signs and annoying solicitations from the Leader of the Free World, you can sometimes forget that it’s all about getting you out to vote. So that you don’t feel that dropping feeling in your stomach when you see your coworkers prancing around wearing "I Voted" stickers, here’s fair warning: Vote tomorrow. (See the This Just In blog for more about what’s on tomorrow’s ballot.)

The arrival of Election Day is also a time for reflection, and for the purposes of this blog I ask: How did the candidates use music in their campaign? Politicians have long used the music to unite groups in common cause—their cause. The question becomes, how to harness music’s communal spirit in a way that reflect’s the candidate’s agenda? It’s tough work, and it usually means a whole lot of "Don’t Stop Believin’" and Sheryl Crow’s "A Change Will Do You Good."

At first things looked like they might take a turn for the weird in our district, where taste runs from joyful indie rock to tear-in-my-beer country, with lots in between. Republican nomination was still up in the air last year, FairTax advocate and Lynchburg native Bradley Rees announced that "Bulldozer" by the metal band Machine Head would soundtrack his ascension to Capitol Hill.

He clearly had his finger on the pulse of Virginia.

Soon it became clear that the 5th District contenders would use music as others have always. Behind every attack ad lurked a grave string arrangement, or else some sinister compositions that suggests a kind of behind-the-scenes evil. But as time wore on the Dems broke the musical mold, slamming Hurt with an animated campaign ad that accuses Hurt of attempting to "waltz into the White House." You know they’re serious when they namedrop the genre that keeps in the decidedly highbrow 3/4 time.

The ad’s soundtrack is more like a polka, a carefree and pizzicato-happy that would be well suited to slapstick comedy.

Well-chosen, indeed. 

The Perriello camp recently released this song by a group called The Perriello Pickers (who may have to break up tomorrow), called "Tom Perriello for the Common Good." It’s a sweet little ride on the bluegrass express that fashion the incumbent’s virtues in a song that would satisfy vast range of constituents in the 5th District: "Perriello, for the common good, Perriello for the change we need. From the hills of the Piedmont, to the hills of the South Side, the choice for you and me."

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

More developments in the strange case of the onetime wealthy socialite Patricia Kluge, whose wine business foreclosed late last week: Her lender has also filed a personal lawsuit against her and husband Bill Moses, alleging that they deliberately moved assets into her son’s trust in order to defraud the bank. Read more here.