Why Obama is taking time to campaign for Rep. Tom Perriello
Why is President Obama spending crucial preelection hours campaigning for an endangered freshman House member 鈥� Rep. Tom Perriello (D) of Virginia?
After all, Representative Perriello鈥檚 district leans Republican. He won by only a few hundred votes in the Obama sweep year of 2008. Right now, he鈥檚 trailing his GOP challenger, state Sen. Robert Hurt, by anywhere from one to 12 percentage points, according to various polls. It鈥檚 quite likely he鈥檒l lose.
As a general rule, presidents don鈥檛 waste their time standing on podiums with one-term lawmakers who are on every prognosticator鈥檚 鈥渆ndangered鈥� list, as he's slated to do Friday night.
But this is an unusual year, and Perriello鈥檚 case is itself unusual.
For one thing, Perriello, a Yale-trained attorney and former lawyer for international human rights efforts, is eager for an Obama visit. In a year where some Democrats are boasting that they voted for John McCain in 2008, and others are literally shooting administration bills in their campaign ads, the president perhaps just wants to reward loyalty.
And Perriello has been unapologetic about his support for Obama and White House legislation. He voted for all the big ones 鈥� the stimulus, cap-and-trade climate change legislation, and the health-care bill 鈥� despite the conservative cast of his district. That has made him a hero to many liberals. It also has not escaped Mr. Obama鈥檚 notice. He mentioned Perriello by name during his appearance on Jon Stewart鈥檚 鈥�The Daily Show鈥� Wednesday.
鈥淭here are a whole bunch of Democrats, guys like Tom Perriello in Virginia, ... who are basically in Republican districts,鈥� said Obama. 鈥淵ou know, they won in the big surge that we had in 2008, they knew it was going to be a tough battle, that these are generally pretty conservative districts, and yet still went ahead and did what they thought was right.鈥�
Finally, Perriello is not irretrievably behind. He could still win, particularly if Obama鈥檚 appearance in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, fires up the area鈥檚 young and African-American voters. He is an energetic, able candidate (as is Senator Hurt). He has lots of money (though Hurt has matched him ad for ad).
鈥淧erriello has been underestimated before,鈥� notes political analyst Charlie Cook in his Cook Political Report analysis of the race.
But Mr. Cook goes on to note that to this point many of Perriello鈥檚 2008 supporters 鈥渟imply aren鈥檛 engaged,鈥� and that the fundamentals of the race 鈥渁rgue for a Hurt win.鈥�
