Rees says he’s not running as Republican in Fifth District

A candidate for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives announced Thursday he is removing himself from the Republican ticket to restructure his campaign as an independent.

Bradley Rees, who is running in the 2010 election for the seat currently occupied by Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello, said at a news conference Thursday night that disappointment with the national Republican scene caused him to re-evaluate how he wanted to run his campaign.

Standing in front of the rhinoceros statues at The King’s Lighthouse on U.S. 460 in Bedford, Rees devoted much of his announcement to his disappointment with politicians whom he called RINO’s, or Republican In Name Only.

Rees said since the beginning of his campaign, which he announced in June, “I have consistently referred to myself as a ‘reluctant Republican,’ and proudly taken on the mantle of the anti-establishment, grassroots candidate.”

He said he became further disenchanted with the party while on the campaign trail, and witnessed events “that have been a cause for great concern, and even, at times, indignation … things that are meant to be kept in the shadows, far away from the ears and critical thinking abilities of the populace.”

For those reasons, Rees said, he no longer wanted to remain on the Republican ticket, but to switch his campaign to the Virginia Conservative Party, which is a chapter of the American Conservative Party, said Butch Porter, who was contacted by e-mail. Porter is chairman of the Virginia Conservative Party.

Rees said he did not know how much work or red tape he would have to navigate to change his platform to that of the Virginia Conservative Party, and he did not rule out the possibility of endorsing a conservative Republican candidate.

He described certain Republican candidates still in the Virginia race as “principled conservatives whose love for this country outweighs any political affiliation or loyalty to the elites in the power structure.”

Rees also cautioned that the public not disregard his chances just because he’s a political outsider, mentioning rookie Perriello’s surprising victory over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode.

“Here in the Fifth (District), they voted for a fresh face, a political outsider that everyone in the GOP refused to take seriously,” he said, adding, “I think I resemble that remark.”

But he said he’s not deluding himself about his chances.

“It may amount to only drawing enough votes from the Republican candidate to ensure Tom Perriello a second term,” he said.

“If so, so be it. Maybe then, the party will understand that we are trying to save the GOP from its worst enemy — not the Democrats, but themselves.”

Other candidates who have announced bids for the Fifth District seat are Ron Ferrin of Campbell County, Michael McPadden of Albemarle County, Feda Kidd Morton of Fluvanna County, Laurence Verga of Albemarle County, and Kenneth C. Boyd, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.