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Some thoughts about Tom Perriello’s town hall meetings

Tom Perriello has been around the SouthsideCentral area doing his town hall meetings over the past week. I’ve got some “random thoughts” about how it’s gone so far.

The Southside tour started with Chatham on Monday, Danville on Tuesday, Martinsville on Wednesday, and South Boston on Thursday. Let’s go to the “random thoughts” board…

  • Attendance seems to be way down compared to last year, and that’s a big surprise to me with this being an election year. What’s the reason? Health care reform was the dominating issue last year, but there doesn’t seem to be one dominating issue out there.
  • The attendance may be down, but the cordiality is significantly up. The ones I’ve seen have been nowhere like the one last year in Danville… except for one glaring example.
  • Gary Bender (at the Danville meeting) was an embarrassment to himself. I’ll say what I said last year… “I don’t give a damn if you hate the man and think he’s Satan. He deserves a degree of respect no matter what.” Bender (in a two+ minute crazy-ass rant) called Perriello a “liar and a hypocrite” before getting booed (rightfully) by the audience.
  • Has anyone ever seen Tom Perriello in anything except a light blue dress shirt and a red tie?
  • Some people are complaining about the times that these town hall meetings have been scheduled for, with some starting at 7:30 AM. With the number of meetings that Perriello has scheduled, those complaints are horsecrap. There’s no way that everybody can be pleased and to have the meetings at various times throughout the day is a good idea. If you didn’t like the Chatham 7:30 AM start time on Monday, you could easily drive the short distance to Danville for the 6:00 PM meeting on Tuesday.

More random thoughts to come…

6 comments to Some thoughts about Tom Perriello’s town hall meetings

  • kelley in virginia

    Bruce, the economy is the issue. But the economy is a larger “item” than a 2,700 page bill, so in some ways, it is more difficult to articulate a question or an outrage.

    Persons went to Perriello’s townhalls last year went with the thought that Perriello would not fall in with Pelosi on Obamacare. These persons went to express their opposition. And since Perriello did not listen to them (or to the majority of the 5th District) & voted to rape the American people anyway, many people will not attend any more Perriello events.

    But they will vote for Robert Hurt on November 2.

  • Watchman

    Please….I believe Tom did indeed represent what the people in the 5th wanted, affordable health care without the insurance companies writing all the rules.
    Anyone who spoke with Tom would not doubt his sincerity.
    As for Hurt…..he needs to put up or shut up…oh yeah he has shut up. You only hear from him through his aides.

  • Tucker Watkins

    Tom needs to have some respect for those who come to his town halls. He seldom gives a real answer. He and his staff have refused on multiple occasions now to answer the simple question of how many jobs were created at the diary farm he has in his ad.

    He continues to mislead people about his donors, saying he takes no money from lobbyists and ignoring that his largest donor group are the labor unions. Do they come to his office ad talk to him about their issues ? Sure they do. But he draws some imaginary line that no one else does and it is just like one person told him in South Boston that it was like Bill Clinton’s famous ” it depends on what the meaning of the word is is ”

    Perriello has so much of this mess that some call him “tap dance Tom”

  • Chris

    Tucker Watkins whining about respect is pretty rich. I didn’t know that word was part of his vocabulary. I’ve seen Tucker be incredibly rude to people who worked for his opponents or simply didn’t give in to his demands many times. But now that he’s out of a job, he’s begging for respect.

  • If Hurt continues to run this type of hiding from the people campaign, I might just vote for Perriello if he continues to disrespect Tucker Watkins. I’d be hard pressed to come up with an issue that would unite the 5th more.

  • Ghost of Ted Dalton

    Interesting thoughts as usual. I’m really starting to sense that the Fifth may be the surprise district in the nation as Periello should be a goner based on national trends. Periello is running a very effective campaign. It looks like this is going to be another close one. I spent some time in Danville this weekend visiting my parents, and it’s pretty obvious that Periello and crew are out-organizing the GOP again. A superior ground game can’t overcome a tidal wave, but if it’s close then Periello is probably going to squeak out a second term. Hurt still has absolutely zero presence in C’ville/Albemarle. If he’s going to win, he’s got to either 1.) Pray for extremely low turnout in C’ville/Albemarle OR 2.) Get up there and just camp out and win over some of rural Albemarle OR 3.) Really work the African-American community to get to 10% of that vote. Let’s face it, how did Goode lose? 1.) High turnout in C’ville/Albemarle and getting swamped there. 2.) Goode’s missteps. and 3.) Unbelievable numbers among African-Americans. Before 2008, Goode actually drew a decent percentage of black votes for a Republican in the neighborhood of 15 to 18% or so….mainly from personal relationships with a number of black voters and organizers that he made when he was a Democrat. I know a number of 5th District Democrats that always maintained that was the key to Goode’s margins before 2008. He ran up 60% of the vote b/c of his strength in the black precincts as a Republican. That number was probably closer to 2 or 3% in 2008. A complete wipeout in that community.

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