Hurt, Perriello spar over jobs, taxes in 5th District

In dueling news releases Wednesday, the campaigns for Rep. Tom Perriello and state Sen. Robert Hurt fired off accusations that were rooted in the jobs-and-economy issues ruling their 5^th District race.

Hurt accused Perriello of allowing room for tax increases on the middle class.

Perriello said Hurt was soft on a measure that would keep jobs in America.

The two campaigns also continued their sparring over the format for televised debates that are being planned.

Lise Clavel, Perriello’s campaign manager, offered an apparent compromise on the incumbent’s previous argument that debates should include Jeffrey Clark, an independent candidate from Danville.

Hurt has said he would debate with Clark only if Clark won 10 percent support in a poll.

Clavel, in a new offer Wednesday, said Perriello “will commit to two televised debates that include all the candidates and two head-to-head debates with Sen. Hurt.”

Earlier Wednesday, Clavel issued a news release that said Hurt failed to take a stand against a Democrat-proposed free-trade agreement with South Korea.

Perriello said earlier this week that he would oppose the trade pact because Southside Virginia has lost nearly 6,000 jobs through similar agreements with other countries.

“Despite representing Southern Virginia during the worst job losses in our area’s history, Sen. Robert Hurt still refuses to oppose trade agreements that send American jobs overseas,” Clavel said.

“Again yesterday (Tuesday), he refused to oppose expanding NAFTA-style agreements to cover South Korea and other countries,” Clavel said.

Hurt’s campaign spokesman, Sean Harrison, replied by saying Perriello has failed to protect Southside jobs.

“Not only has Rep. Perriello totally failed to create jobs, he has sided with Democrats in Washington for job-killing policies like a national energy tax that will crush our economy, government-run health care that cuts Medicare by $500 billion, and a trillion-dollar stimulus bill that has fallen totally flat,” Harrison said.

Perriello has previously asserted that the $730-billion stimulus bill included benefits to Southside Virginia, most recently for the Robinson Bridge project in Danville.

Hurt counterattacked by criticizing Perriello’s tax comments, which were contained in a Washington Post report Wednesday on a meeting of the Democratic group Third Way.

Harrison said that the Post quoted Perriello as saying, “I think there’s an argument for at least temporarily extending the working-class and middle-class tax cuts, for the same logic of the stimulus.”

Harrison said: “If Rep. Perriello thinks we should just extend the middle-class tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 only ‘temporarily,’ what year would be best to let them expire and thus force the middle class to pay more in income taxes?”

Hurt added his own comment: “Rep. Perriello has proven time and time again that he is willing to vote against the best interests of central and Southside Virginians. Now he’s pledging to raise taxes on middle class families.

“There is no way you can claim to support job creation and at the same time pledge to raise taxes on struggling middle-class families,” Hurt said.

Clavel responded: “Tom clearly stated he supports extending tax cuts for the middle-class, which is especially important in this time of economic recovery.

“The real question is this: why is Sen. Hurt fighting not only to protect tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas, but also to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, a move that would add $678 billion to the deficit?”