Democrat Tom Perriello finds that his constituents are irate over health care and government spending
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — In a small middle school library a man is shouting and wagging a finger at Rep. Tom Perriello. Perriello, a Democrat who represents Virginia’s mostly rural 5th District extending from Charlottesville to the North Carolina border, has just embarked on his monthlong listening tour, and residents are unloading their anger about the Democratic agenda.
They’re mad about government spending, legislation aimed a curbing global warming and, most of all, plans to create a massive public health care system that would cover all of the nation’s uninsured.
“So you’re going to steal my money,” shouted the middle-aged man as he waved a miniature copy of the Constitution at Perriello, “and give it to somebody else who is not even a citizen?”
Elected eight months ago over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode by a thin margin, Perriello faces a daunting challenge. The 34-year-old must try to help his party pass a sweeping plan to overhaul both the nation’s health care system and its energy production while not alienating and angering constituents who chose Republican John McCain over Barack Obama 51 percent to 48 percent.
“The Democratic leaders know I’m an independent and know I’m going to vote what I think is right,” Perriello told The Washington Examiner. “And people in my district really respect that I’m showing up and having the conversation.”
Perriello is one of 30 or so Democratic members of Congress who are fighting to hold seats usually occupied by Republicans. They cruised to victory in the Bush-backlash election of 2006 and Barack Obama’s history-making run in 2008, but now the political winds have turned against them.
“I think that there is a great opportunity for this district to be Republican again,” said Tucker Watkins, the longtime chairman of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee, who has been meeting with a dozen possible candidates. “Congressman Perriello has not lived up to his pledge of working overtime, and he has voted against the wishes of the district over and over.”
Supporters say Perriello is not the standard rank-and-file Democrat his opponents portray him to be. He voted against releasing the second $350 billion in bailout funds for the nation’s troubled financial sector, and he cast a “no” vote on Obama’s budget proposal. Perriello also opposed a bill to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco, still widely grown in the district.
“I think his values reflect the district,” Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Richard Cranwell said. “I think he has asserted his independence and that is reflected in his votes.”
But many constituents are angry that Perriello helped his party narrowly pass a global-warming bill in the House that could dramatically increase energy costs. And in a region where unemployment is still climbing, Perriello’s vote for the $787 billion stimulus bill rankles many. The record-shattering deficits of the past eight months were front and center as the freshman Democrat took his listening tour across the district.
But it is health care legislation that could have the most effect on whether Perriello returns for a second term, say constituents who fear the Democratic proposal will lead to rationing, high taxes, and an end to the private insurance industry.
“If health care goes through and he votes for it, he’s a dead duck,” said Phillip Koger, 67, of Martinsville. “People hate this thing”
Perriello was not expected to beat Goode, a popular, six-term incumbent. Just three months before the election, Perreillo, a Yale-trained lawyer from the horsey-set Charlottesville suburb of Ivy, lagged behind Goode by more than 30 points in early polls.
But Democrats and Republicans now agree that Perriello benefited from the perfect political storm. Not only was there a strong anti-Republican sentiment, but the top of the ticket included Obama and then-Democratic Gov. Mark Warner running for a Senate seat. Democrats flooded the polls, including many black residents of Southside communities like Martinsville and Danville, where turnout is usually low.
Perriello, with a lot of help from the national and state Democratic parties, ran a sophisticated campaign, pouring money, time and volunteers into the district on a massive scale. The 62-year-old Goode, who had never in his career run a television ad, looked like a politician from a bygone era.
And perhaps most critically, Perriello and an army of volunteers registered record numbers of college students, providing him with thousands of additional votes in the Charlottesville area.
“Without that, Perriello certainly would not have won a 727-vote victory in 2008, and that is not going to be there for him in 2010,” said David Wasserman, editor of House races for the Cook Political Report. “Democrats have to keep registering these voters and certainly that is not as easy to do when you don’t have a motivator like Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.”
For Perriello, the biggest threat may be low voter turnout.
“Turnout is always a hard subject on the off-year election, when there is no U.S. Senate candidate,” said Fred Hudson, chairman of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee. “On the other hand, Tom Perriello received more votes than Obama did in the Fifth Congressional District. He is not beholden to Obama’s victory.”
Perriello is working hard to make himself known to voters, sending frequent mailings about what he is doing in Congress and spending countless hours traveling the around his vast district.
“I like him now,” said Maple Moore, 59, who lives in the town of Chatham south of Lynchburg and works in a school cafeteria. Moore voted for Goode, but has been impressed with Perriello’s efforts to connect with residents. She’s prepared to stick with the new incumbent, unless he raises her taxes, which may be inevitable as Perriello appears prepared to back a health care bill that will cost more than $1 trillion.
Though he says he is undecided about the legislation, Perriello has mostly followed the Democratic talking points handed to him when he left Washington for the August recess. He calmly defended the proposal at a recent forum, even as the Constitution-waving constituent and many others expressed outrage over the proposal.
He also confessed to the people gathered at the middle school in Martinsville that a lot about Washington has been disappointing so far.
“It really seemed like it was going to be the new guys against the old guys,” Perriello said. “And it really felt like it took two weeks for that to fall apart.”
