Fifth District candidates face off

Six conservative candidates did a lot of agreeing with one another Tuesday night in a debate for the Republican nomination to run for Congress in the 5th District in November against Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello.

Social issues — including abortion, a federal marriage amendment and Internet child pornography — got a little more attention than in previous debates as the candidates faced an audience of 300 people at Liberty University.

The seventh candidate in the race, who wasn’t there, also got some attention.

Robert Hurt, the primary’s front-runner according to some polls, missed the debate because he had a previous commitment to speak to an audience in Martinsville. A Rasmussen poll that was disclosed Tuesday showed Hurt, a state senator from Chatham, at least 17percentage points ahead of all the other candidates.

Three of the candidates zeroed in on Hurt when debate moderator Mathew Staver posed this question: “Which other candidate in the Republican primary are you the most opposite, and why?”

Jim McKelvey, of Franklin County, called Hurt “a career politician who, in my opinion, will be a lap dog for the Republican Party like Perriello is a lap dog for the Democratic Party.”

“It’s time we put real people in there to take care of business,” McKelvey said.

Mike McPadden, of Albemarle County, said Hurt, a member of the state Senate from Chatham, has shown no leadership in the General Assembly.

Feda Morton, of Fluvanna County, said that “fiscally, Robert Hurt is the opposite of where I am,” because “his $1.4 billion tax increase in the 2004 General Assembly is something he just can’t get away from,” and Hurt also voted for special transportation districts in 2007 that were declared unconstitutional.

On abortion, McKelvey took a firm position. “I don’t think there is any instance where you should permit it,” and added that he would like to pass a constitutional amendment to prevent abortion.

All the other candidates said they, too, supported legal measures to block abortion.

Laurence Verga, of Albemarle County, said abortion “is a very personal subject with me. I would do everything possible to end abortion in this society.”

Staver also posed a question about same-sex marriage being approved in Washington, D.C., and asked whether the candidates supported the federal defense-of-marriage act.

McPadden said he is “100 percent pro-traditional marriage” and he was happy with the existing federal marriage law because it means Virginia doesn’t have to recognize marriages performed in other states.

McKelvey said he would support a constitutional amendment to defend marriage.

Ron Ferrin, of Campbell County, said he supported the marriage act and “as a Christian, I believe it’s supposed to be Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

Ken Boyd, of Albemarle County, said he was a “big supporter of the 10th amendment” and believes in state’s rights. “But this is an issue that can’t be dealt with on the state level. If we don’t do that, we will have people from Washington move to Virginia and they will want the same rights they were afforded in Washington, D.C.”