November 2nd is a long way away, but the first campaign office has opened in Danville. (Caution: This is in the OpinionCentral category for a reason.)
Over 100 people turned out at 437 Man St. in Danville today for the grand opening of Congressman Tom Perriello’s campaign office. I’m smelling some Random Thoughts!
- Main St. in downtown Danville looked like a Cruise-In night with the number of cars parked. See, you can get people to come downtown.
- What the…? SIX Danville police officers are standing guard on the corner. I had heard rumors of a Danville Tea Party demonstration but considering there were zero police officers at the Tea Party rally a week ago, I’m wondering what they were thinking.
- Gotta give Perriello & staff (probably the staff) credit for the food. Anybody that selects Checkered Pig BBQ as their caterer earns bonus points.
- The irony is not lost upon me that the location of this office is where Virgil Goode had his Congressional office. I know the Masonic Temple or River City Towers (whatever the hell it is) has to have inexpensive rent, but I did have a double-take when I relaized who the former long-term tenant was.
- The office is quite crowded. After getting a few photos, I decide to head outside where Perriello is talking to people and posing for photos. The campaign staff is smart as they’re getting the people to sign releases so that they can use the photos for campaign purposes. The sidewalk is getting crowded with people and one of the six Danville police officers ask the staff to clear the sidewalk for safety purposes. I’m not sure about that, but everybody plays nicely and heads back inside.
- Danville City Councilman Larry Campbell is the only councilmember in attendance. George Wilson (School Board chairman) is there along with School Board candidate Philip Campbell.
- The Danville Tea Party’s protest turns out to be Elmer Woodard standing on the corner talking to nobody in particular on why people shouldn’t support Tom Perriello. I’m going to have more on this at the end of the article, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.
- After realizing that the Tea Party protest will be quite minimal, we’re now down to two police officers who appear to wish that this event is over quickly.
- Perriello’s staff says that it’s time to move to the next event, so that’s it for me. I head out and see Woodard continuing to talk on the corner to nobody in particular.
So that happened. Now, let’s go to what I think is the problem with the Danville Tea Party…
If you come to my house for a picnic, don’t crap on my yard. Elmer Woodard had absolutely no chance to change the support level of any of the Perriello supporters there. He knew that but just wanted to “get his message out”. Nobody listened. Perriello deserves the respect that any candidate would get at the grand opening of his office, and it was just totally wrong for Elmer Woodard to try and disrupt the good times being had by all. I can hear some people now (and I’ll agree with them) that Woodard was using his Constitutionally-protected right of “free speech”, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. I just thank goodness that he wasn’t dressed in his silly colonial costume.
That being said, congratulations go out to Tom Perriello for the office’s opening and I look forward to a spirited campaign.
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I do believe that one of the major problems the TEA party has is that its members are often resulting to more “off the wall” measures. The TEA party demonstration last Saturday was a perfect example of how a TEA party should go, and then we go right back to the memories of the one last year on the courthouse steps. As much as I support the “cause” behind these brove few, I do believe that the TEA party has two types of members. There are the “Do-ers” and the “Be-ers”. The “Do-ers” will sit there and tell you the rational points of views, and will do it calmly and logically. The “Be-ers”, like Mr. Elmer here, are there to BE seen and to BE heard. The “Do-ers” don’t care so much about where the credit goes, they just want the right results. The “Be-ers” on the other other hand, make sure that you KNOW who it was that said what.
Sidenote (totally irrelevant) The Checkered Pig’s BBQ is not that great 😉
yep, Tom Perriello will be difficult to beat. He has a TON of money ($1.4 million right now) with promises of more from the uber liberal groups. And he will have Organizing for America (“volunteer” arm of DNC-ha,ha–SEIU) down here campaigning for him.
BUT he has made horrible votes; he has told many untruths & he is just not as good on the stump as his supporters claim (or he wouldn’t have gaffed into the statement about if you don’t stop us, we’ll keep stealing from you).
we can beat him, but we will have to be working together & working smart.
I wasn’t surprised that I did not get an invitation…but I was surprised to read that only one councilman was there…wonder how many (if any) others got invites???
The Congressman has received 2 letters from me …both of which he voted contary to my requests, and then responded to me by telling me that he knows what was best for the 5th District (numerous phone calls I made surprisingly could not get through his voice mail.) Other than that, several TEA Party events I atteneded, and a newspaper interview…I have done nothing to suggest that I do not support him or his efforts. I guess he just knows it is coming.
Danvillians take note – Cap and Trade will affect you and any other customers of Danville Utilities, APCo, or just about any utility east of the Mississippi, like nothing you have ever seen before. Your Congressman voted for it…Your Senators have yet to vote.
Fred: I would think that every councilmember should have gotten an invitation just as a matter of professional courtesy. Go figure.
I was very surprised not to see Ruby Archie there, as she was in Perriello’s entourage when he did his “Tom In Your Town” meeting last summer.
As for “Cap & Trade” – I keep hearing horror stories about it along with the glorious praise. Which side is lying?
mr Shanks, Perriello (& even some of his detractors) tout his constituent service. That means that he is spreading the pork around because he sure as H*LL ain’t responding to letters or phone calls that beg him not to vote for Cap ‘n Trade or Obamacare.
and Mr. Shanks, it is a breach of etiquette not to send you an invitation for his grand opening in Danville.
Southside: I read the Cap ‘n Trade bill. It was much harder to understand than the Obamacare bill (if you can fathom that). alot of trading around of carbon credits. more restrictions on anything that seems to make energy because everything that makes energy pollutes in some way.
like everything coming thru Congress it will cost alot & restrict our freedom.
and it was Obama himself who said the bill would necessarily make electricity rates “skyrocket”.
i would rather be beaten like a rented mule than to read that bill again, but maybe I should so I can convince you that it is bad for everyone who uses electricity.
Kelley: I take no offense regarding not being invited. I had more important events to attend, such as the “Colors Down” event at the Boys and Girls Club of the Danville Area.(The Conressman and his photography team were there for lunch and a photo.)
I do take offense in the voice mail box being full for several consecutive days and then receiving a lecture about how he knew best, and best was contary to my positions. While that may be true, I was offended by the way to which I was being lectured.
Regarding his vote on obamacare, I suspect we will see a long laundry list of “rewards” that he will be credited with in return for his vote. I feel taht some of these came to light last week…but I am sure the best is yet to come. Time will tell.
Kelley: Thanks for you very concise and accurate description of Cap and Trade.
Kelley, it’s a campaign office, not a congressional office. What obligation or etiquette was possibly broken?
Mr. Shanks, prior to the Health Care vote Rep. Perriello’s phone number was posted all over the internet and in the media. It was reported that 88% of the phone calls and messages to the office were from out of district. It’s no wonder the inbox was full.
chris: hey, c’mon its Danville. It would be a very nice gesture to invite all of town council etc to the opening of any business, campaign or otherwise.
and chris: Perriello got plenty of input from us on his 1st healthcare vote so its not like he didn’t know we were against it. I just got a letter from him stating that all healthcare facilities in the 5th were for it. I wrote him asking for a list of those facilities because it simply is a tall tale that these hospitals & facilities were in favor of obamacare. Many of the small facilities are facing tremendous money shortfalls because of it.
Chris: I truly have no problem with the shun. Besides going to the Boys and Girls Club event, I got a lot of yard work done, watched the grass grow and had a darn good Saturday.
Just curious, do you believe 88 percent of the callers who could not get through to the congressman were outside his district? If so, based on what? Leaving the mailbox full and the webmail dysfunctional for days on end assured one thing…the people in his district could not provide last minute feedback or opinions on obamacare. If you don’t want to know the wishes of the people (ie: you already know how you are going to vote, darn the constitutes)cut off their line of communication.
Fred, glad you had a good day. I think 100% of people who called after the mailbox was full couldn’t get in. Perriello has said that 88% of the people calling were out of district, so you can imagine that the volume was truly more than a small congressional staff could handle. My understanding is that the webmail was down for the whole House (outside any one office’s control) and that for every message that was heard off the voicemail, multiple replaced it. With all that said, I totally understand how frustrating that is and I’m not trying to diminish that.
Yes. Exactly – 100 % of his constituents could not get through! You seem to know a lot about the congressman’s ability to not recieve communications from his constituents. As a staffer, do you feel good about that? My day just got better:)
Fred, I’m definitely not a staffer. I just read the papers and have heard the congressman on the radio and in person explain it.
My apologies…you just seem to have all the inside poop. jc, how do you feel about your congressman being out of pocket (from his constituents, apparently including you) the five days prior to the most important vote in modern American history, affecting somewhere between 1/6 and 1/7 of the economy of the US (based on under inflated, ridiculously understated financial data?)
I called Tom’s office in Farmville for over a week and never talked to anyone. The machine was full every time i called and i called alot so either they never deleted the messages because they didn’t want anyone else to leave a message or they never check it either way it is bad.When Virgil Goode was in office i NEVER had this problem if we had only worked a little harder we could have gotten 800 more votes easily as big as the 5th district is.
Speaking of Virgil Goode’s Danville office, whatever came of the “investigation” that Goode was going to conduct about the use of his Congressional office as the contact to promote that softcore, gay movie?
Will White
This is the first time I’v ever agreed with you. We didn’t work hard enough for Virgil. He is the best elected official I’ve ever known. He deserves to be our representative for the 5th district. He was pretty much cheated out of that position. I was soo hoping he would run this time. As for the Gay movie that was nothing but a big fat lie.
Donna i really hope after the primary we can all come together and work hard to show Perriello the door.Im really torn between to candidates now that are both very good men.
I meant two candidates
Will
Thank You!!!!!!!! I hope we can come together for the benefit of the 5th district. I do support Hurt but I will stand behind any candidate that wins the primary. We do need to get rid of Tommy.
Goode’s congressional office was used as a contact to promote that big gay movie, and he pledged an “investigation.” No lie. I just never heard the results of the investigation.
I too was at the event at the boys and girls club. I can vouche for Fred. He was there in the early morning and was there till the end in the afternoon. Our congressman did not come until the afternoon session.
It was a great event to attend. How often does someone like Dr. Lonise P. Bias, the mother of former basketball player Len Bias come to Danville. She was here to speak to the young people of the Boys and girls club to tell them her story. Also members of the Danville Police Dept were on hand to teach the young people about many things and how to protect themselves and get involved in the community. Not much press there. Wonder where they were.
hum…I don’t think I ever got an answer.
“Just curiuos, how do you feel about your congressman being out of pocket (from his constituents, apparently including you) the five days prior to the most important vote in modern American history, affecting somewhere between 1/6 and 1/7 of the economy of the US?”
Sorry I didn’t respond Fred, I was away from my computer all day yesterday and thought this thread had moved on. I feel like I answered you already, but to reiterate, I think it’s a shame so many people from outside the 5th clogged up the phone lines and inbox of our representative rather than their own. I’m upset about that, but I don’t blame Perriello who has been the most visible congressman i’ve seen in this district.
Yea. I couldn’t agree with you more about two things. 1) “Perriello …has been the most visible congressman i’ve seen in this district, and 2) pro’lly past time to let this thread go. Peace.
Just want you to know that over 200 people attended the office opening. There were many others who were unable to attend due to conflicts. Just wanted you to know that 200 would have been a better post than 100.
Sheila Baynes Perriello will need alot more than 200 people to campaign for him in Danville to even get close.He only won by 727 votes in a year that the Democrats dominated. Two of the Republican candidates running have volunteers working for them that worked for Perriello last time.Shelia why do you think we have so many candidates in this race ? They all realize whoever wins the primary will win the general election.
will: while I agree that there is alot of animosity against Congress in general & against Perriello specifically, he still will be hard to beat.
he raised $600,000 last qtr while sitting in DC (& he was spending much of that time wrecking our health care industry). He has solid union backing & those people have promised to travel to the 5th to campaign for him.
i’m not taking him for granted.
and as an aside to Southside Central: this 5th District Republican nomination is a hot topic. Give us more!
I just learned that Mike McPadden is a Navy veteran and the only hunter in the group of candidates running. We need someone in congress who knows what it is like to actually serve our country and someone that actually practices the 2nd amendment rights we have.We need someone who lives what they campaign on.I just made my decision im voting for Mike McPadden.
While you all are putting a headstone on Rep. Perriello time in office let us remember that the facts will prevail over political spin and the truth of the service that he has tried to give to the people of the 5th District will show through in the end. Don’t count your chickens too early, Perriello is a fighter and great person that will do more great things for this district and for the country.
jeff, Sen Hurt turkey hunts.
and Dave, Perriello is a formidable candidate, no question. He’s got union support in terms of dollars & bodies plus the main stream media. The Hurt supporters know we have a fight on our hands & we are ready.
Dave the facts will prevail. The main fact is Tom Perriello has voted with Pelosi instead of voting the wishes of the people of the 5th this fact WILL show Perriello the door.Tom Perriello needs to Remember he is suppose to speak for the people of the 5th not Pelosi.