ACVDN Endorses Tom Perriello

The Republican Tea Party has told more lies about Tom Perriello than any other Congressman in the United States of America.

Who is this hardworking Congressman the dirty tricksters will tell any lie to defeat?
 
Tom Perriello is a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th district.     He assumed office January 3, 2009.      Perriello was born October 9, 1974 and lived in Ivy, Virginia.      He is the Democratic congressman from the fifth district of Virginia.      The district includes much of Southside Virginia, and stretches north to Charlottesville.
 
Perriello is a lifelong resident of Ivy, a small unincorporated community west of Charlottesville.     However, he is listed in the House roll as "D-Charlottesville."      He attended Murray Elementary School, Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, Henley Middle School and Western Albemarle High School in the county school system, and then graduated from St. Anne's-Belfield School, a private school.      He earned B.A. (1996) and J.D. (2001) degrees at Yale University, where he also became a member of Scroll and Key.      He attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 114 in Ivy, and was a legislative page in the Virginia House of Delegates.
 
From 2002-03, Perriello was Special Advisor to the international prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he worked with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups, and helped to prosecute warlords.     He later became the Court's Spokesman and helped to indict Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, peacefully forcing him from power.     He has worked as a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice in Kosovo (2003), Darfur (2005), and Afghanistan (2007) where he worked on justice-based security strategies.     Perriello has also been a fellow at The Century Foundation and consultant to the National Council of Churches of Christ.     He helped to launch FaithfulAmerica.org, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and is a co-founder of DarfurGenocide.org and Avaaz.org, an international on-line community of 3.3 million members, operating in 12 languages, dedicated to building a global response to "problems without borders" such as climate change.     He has also worked with the Rev. James Forbes on prophetic justice principles.


Perriello, a resident of Albemarle County, has spent much of his career working in West Africa and the Middle East to create strategies for sustainable peace, and he was involved in the peace processes that helped end the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

U.S. Congress


During the 2009 legislative session, Perriello's first term in Congress, Periello voted for the stimulus bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and the health care reform bill in March 2010.      In addition, he voted against the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, because the bill extended unemployment benefits for only some states and excluded Virginia.

Foreign Policy


Perriello is a supporter of the War on Terror.     Although he has cast votes for the continuation of US military action in Afghanistan, he has also cosponsored legislation requiring U.S. President Barack Obama to submit an exit strategy for the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.      Perriello has also opposed removing the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan.

In 2010, Congressman Perriello voted in support of the defense bill, 2010 military appropriations and spending for combat operations.

Committee assignments

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure


Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management


Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment


Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials


Committee on Veterans' Affairs


Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity


Subcommittee on Health

Electoral historyThe traditionally Democratic urban areas of the district gave Perriello significant margins over Goode.     While Goode won 13 of the 20 county-level jurisdictions in the district, Perriello won all but one independent city, Bedford which went for Goode by only 16 votes.      Ultimately, Perriello prevailed largely on the strength of a more than 25,000 vote margin in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County. Perriello's performance showed the most dramatic improvements over past Democratic voting in the more conservative areas of the district hardest hit by decades of job loss and economic slowdown.      As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama also improved on past Democratic performance, but he ultimately lost this district by around 7,500 votes (2.5 percentage points).     For example, Perriello significantly outperformed Obama in the strongly conservative southwestern portion of the district (ironically, where Goode is from).     Perriello may also have been helped by coattails from atop the ticket, as Mark Warner won the district in a landslide with 65 percent of the vote.


United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, District 5, 2008


In the 2008 election, Perriello launched a campaign based on conviction politics, achieving a surprise win over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode, a longtime figure in Virginia politics, after having trailed Goode in the polls by 32% only three months earlier. Goode had represented a large portion of the district for 38 years, including representing much of the southwest portion of the district in the Senate of Virginia prior to serving in Congress.



 
Virginia's 5th congressional district election, 2010


Perriello will face Republican State Senator Robert Hurt in the 2010 congressional elections.     On December 3, 2009, political commentator Stuart Rothenberg listed Perriello as one of the twelve most vulnerable incumbents in the House of Representatives up for reelection in 2010.      On September 10, 2010, statistician and analyst Nate Silver ranked Perriello as one of the most vulnerable incumbent running for re-election.

2010 Tea Party incident

The FBI is currently investigating an incident in which Perriello's brother's address was listed on a Tea Party movement website, mistakenly believed to be the congressman's address.    Mike Troxel, an organizer for the Lynchburg Tea Party (supported and sponsored by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, R- 6th CD, who published the Tea Party materials on a page of his website), posted the address on his blog, encouraging tea party activists to "drop by." A gas line to an outdoor barbecue grill was cut at the brother's house and is being treated as a threat to Perriello over his vote on healthcare reform during the 111th Congress.     Mike Troxel is a member of the Liberty University group of political dirty tricksters.



There is no stunt too low for the Republican Tea Party as they lie about the Congressmans record in an attempt to defeat him.     The only defense against this type of conduct is for the people to rise and reject this type of low life campaigining.      It is the accepted job of republicans and tea party members to lie to you but you get to decide on truth.     Don't allow these right wing nutjobs to pull the wool over your eyes.     You are the driving force behind our system of government and you get to make the decision.      America is a Great country and its problems are small and can be dealt with.     Adjustments can be made and fine tuning can take place to set the ship back on course.      When someone tells you you have to scrap the constitution and appoint instead of elect Senators and give money to the rich so the poor can get along a little better YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.      When republicans tell you social security must be ended and medicare must be phased out You are being lied to.     Tom Perriello is a hard working Congressman and a decent human being and more than deserving of your vote and another term in office.     Make it your mission to see that he is re-elected.

The Amherst County Democratic News is proud to endorse Tom Perriello.