The news involving the Tom Perriello campaign earlier this week was, the congressional race between Perriello and Republican incumbent John McGuire in the Fifth District is trending tighter than the pundits were initially expecting.
The news today flows directly from that polling news.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported today that it is adding the Perriello campaign to its Red to Blue program, through which the DCCC “arms top-tier candidates with organizational and fundraising support to help them continue to develop strong campaigns,” per its website.
“Washington desperately needs more people like Tom Perriello who have the backbone to stand up to special interests and the courage to put their own community first, regardless of the politics. Tom has proven that he will fight for the Blue Ridge no matter the cost, while his opponent John McGuire has come to represent the Washington corruption that is costing Virginia families. That contrast is why Tom is poised to flip this seat in November,” DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene said in a statement from a release.
The polling from earlier in the week that we referenced above, conducted by Expedition Strategies, a Northern Virginia-based research and polling firm that works, among others, with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, had McGuire leading Perriello by three points, 47 percent to 44 percent.
But a release from the Perriello campaign reported that “(a)fter voters hear positive information about both candidates, the race flips, with Perriello leading McGuire 47 percent to 44 percent. After voters hear about McGuire’s record, Perriello opens an 11-point lead, 51 percent to 39 percent.”
Expedition Strategies concludes that the Fifth District race “starts off as a jump ball, but the underlying fundamentals of this race favor former Congressman Tom Perriello, who has room to grow his support and the ability to define Congressman McGuire as a corrupt politician who has sold out his constituents.”
“We defied the odds before, and we’re on track to do it again, because Virginians want someone who will fight the corruption in DC instead of trying to get rich off it,” said Perriello, who won the congressional seat in the Fifth District a generation ago, back in 2008, in a massive upset win over a Republican incumbent, Virgil Goode, in a race in which the first public poll of the cycle, released in August, had Goode ahead by 34 points.
That’s what Perriello is referring to when he says he’s “defied the odds before.”
A three-point deficit is nothing against what the situation at this point in the 2008 cycle was.
And considering the Perriello campaign is more than holding its own in the money game – according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project, Perriello had raised more than $2.1 million through July 1, outpacing the McGuire campaign, which reported $1.7 million in fundraising through July 1 – this outside help from the DCCC should be a nice extra boost.
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Chris Graham
