From: The Lynchburg News & Advance on August 8, 2010

Fifth District Voters Should Hear All Hopefuls

Only if you’ve been living beneath a rock for the past 18 months would you not know there’s acongressional election coming up this November.

The 2010 midterm elections, in which all 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the U.S. senators are up for re-election, are shaping up to be the most important in a generation. And one of the marque races is right here in Central and Southside Virginia in the Fifth Congressional District, pitting freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, a Democrat, against two challengers, state Sen. Robert Hurt, a Republican, and Jeff Clark, a Danville businessman and independent.

In 2008, Perriello knocked off incumbent Rep. Virgil Goode, a Republican, by fewer than 800 votes in one of that year’s closest elections. As a result, he’s got a big, red bulls-eye painted on his back as one of the most endangered members of Congress facing re-election. Interest in the contest, both in the district and nationally, has been intense.

Click here to read the full article.

August 5, 2010--Jessica Barba, spokeswoman for the Perriello campaign, issued the following statement in response to the news that Jim McKelvey has endorsed Robert Hurt on the basis of 12 pledges: 

"First, Senator Hurt pledged away his independence to Washington corporate interest groups in order to become the lobbyists’ candidate. Now, Jim McKelvey reveals a dozen more secret promises that this career politician made in backrooms, including a promise to abolish the Department of Education and vote against bills that fund our military and veterans. Who knows what else he'll be pledging tonight in the secret Tea Party meeting? We won't know -- because instead of talking straight to voters in a televised debate, Robert Hurt favors back-room deals, as all career politicians do." 

From: The Danville Register & Bee on August 4, 2010

State Sen. Robert Hurt, the Republican candidate for Congress, will be a guest of the Lynchburg Tea Party tomorrow night. But unless you’re a member of that group or a regular — whatever that means — you won’t be able to attend.

The meeting is also off-limits to the public and the news media.

"At the request of several of our members, they would like to have a personal conversation with the candidates," Mark Lloyd, chairman of the Lynchburg Tea Party, told The News & Advance of Lynchburg. "It will be a more personal, one-on-one type of setting without the lights and microphones."

The Lynchburg Tea Party is certainly welcome to hold any type of gathering it wants to, but this kind of event — closed off from the public and the press — is a huge mistake for Hurt.

From: The Lynchburg News & Advance on August 4, 2010

So does the Lynchburg Tea Party really have a hidden agenda, as some have suggested?

That’s the inevitable conclusion one reaches after reading last week’s story that tea party members will meet Thursday behind closed doors with two Republican candidates running for Congress. The media, with all its clumsy recording devices such as notebooks and a pen, have been excluded from the monthly meeting.

Across the district, women have been gathering to support Tom. Check out these pictures of recent Women for Perriello events and contact your local office for news of upcoming events near you!