'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Congratulations, Tom Perriello!

Tom Perriello's lead over mean-spirited rightwinger Virgil Goode in our district's hard fought congressional race now looks unassailable. The Virginia Democrats' 'Raising Kaine' blog now says that Perriello is 646 votes ahead of Goode, at 158,563 - 157,917 votes.

RK quotes a veteran state political hand as saying that Bedford County is the only jurisdiction that still needs to be retabulated. The state board of elections web-page for Bedford shows us that as of 7:33 last night the numbers involved in correction counting there fell far short of the 650-plus Goode needs: It was three votes here or there they were looking at.

Tom and the state Dems are now claiming victory. Goode has not yet conceded.

Tom Perriello will be a huge improvement over Virgil Goode in the House of Representatives. He is a dedicated social activist where Goode had become a mean-spirited, divisive personality who sought to belittle and exclude immigrants and new Americans. It was also from Goode that I first heard a call to "drill, drill, drill" (oil out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) being used as a rallying cry.

In a couple of earlier JWN posts I offered Tom Perriello some constructive criticism about some aspects of his campaign. Basically, I thought he was wrong to be so openly critical of those who came before him in Democratic Party, whether locally or nationally.

But thanks in good measure to Tom's smart and dedicated campaigning we are now in a very welcome new day in Virginia, as throughout the US. And because of the horrible economic crisis now descending on the heads of all the US's people-- but most harshly on those of the country's poorest and most vulnerable families-- we will need Tom's attention to social organizing and socio-economic and political inclusiveness more than ever. He'll be a fabulous force for good in Washington, DC!

Thanks to Tom Perriello and all his hardworking supporters!