Goode, Perriello trade jabs

Fifth District congressional candidates Tom Perriello and Republican incumbent Virgil Goode are questioning each other’s methods of raising campaign funds.

Perriello, a Democratic challenger who has not accepted any campaign money from lobbyists, said a fundraiser scheduled for Goode on Thursday’s anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is “another reminder of Washington corruption.”

Goode replied that much of the roughly $1 million Perriello’s campaign has raised came from residents of New York and California who are in the entertainment and finance industries, and that Perriello benefited from a Manhattan fundraising event held by billionaire George Soros. Goode said Soros is an atheist who supports drug use and abortion.

Perriello said a luncheon that Washington lobbyists are holding for Goode on Thursday “would be just politics as usual” if it were not occurring on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York’s twin towers and on the Pentagon.

“We think the memories of the fallen deserve better,” Perriello’s campaign said, urging people to call Goode’s office and ask him to cancel the event.

Goode said Tuesday that the fundraiser, sponsored by the lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates, would go ahead as scheduled. Goode said he planned to attend the luncheon unless the House of Representatives is holding its own observance of the attacks.

“Whatever the House is doing I will be participating in that,” and, if it occurs during the noon hour, he will “go to the fundraiser afterward,” Goode said.

Goode also said that, if Congress’ schedule allowed, he would attend a memorial event planned at the Pentagon earlier in the day.

Perriello’s campaign made an issue of the fundraiser’s timing during a media conference call Monday with Roy Carter of Henry County, a Navy veteran who supports the Democrat. “This disrespect for the servicemen who were attacked in Virginia on 9/11 is outrageous,” Carter said, pointing out that the Pentagon is located in Virginia.

Perriello spokeswoman Jessica Barba said Goode’s comments about Perriello’s supporters “are an unsurprising but frankly disturbingly out-of-touch attempt to deflect attention from the real issue.”

“This event unambiguously exploits his position on the powerful Appropriations Committee as a lure for lobbyists to pay $2,500 for access to him,” Barba said of Goode.

Goode already has received close to $200,000 this election cycle from corporate lobbyists, according to federal elections data.

The same database indicates Perriello’s contributions from people with addresses in New York and California come to about $170,000.

Entertainment industry figures, including Rob Reiner and other Hollywood producers and writers, appear on Perriello’s list of givers.

Goode’s contributions come from 35 states, but overwhelmingly from Virginia residents. About 570 Virginians have contributed more than $320,000 to Goode’s campaign this cycle.

Last week, when Goode was first asked about the luncheon scheduled for Thursday, he told the Danville newspaper he thought its sponsorship had a connection to Virginia Tech.

Goode said Tuesday he didn’t know last week that Van Scoyoc Associates was sponsoring the luncheon.

Instead, Goode said, he was under the mistaken impression that the event was sponsored directly by a vice president of the huge lobbying firm, which lists about 200 clients on its Web site.

“I thought Jan Schoonmaker individually was sponsoring it,” Goode said.

Schoonmaker lobbies for Virginia Tech, Goode said. Van Scoyoc’s Web site lists about 20 universities among its clients.

Barba continued Tuesday to criticize Goode on the Virginia Tech aspect of his earlier comment.

“For him to excuse such a shocking and inappropriate fundraiser, held on the anniversary of 9/11, by connecting it to a great state institution that recently experienced the tragedy of the shootings is nothing short of unbelievable,” Barba said, referring to a rampage in April 2007 that took the lives of 32 students and the mentally ill student who shot them.