According to the
Charlottesville Daily Progress, it appears that there will be yet
another third-party, "tea party" candidate in the 5th Congressional District.
Apart from the seven Republicans running for a chance to challenge [Rep. Tom] Perriello, there is at least one independent running in the 5th District, which includes the Charlottesville region and stretches down to Danville.
Bradley S. Rees, a conservative factory worker from Bedford, dropped out of the GOP contest and is running on the Virginia Conservative Party platform. Jeff Clark, a Danville resident, said he will also run as a third party candidate and will aim for the support of Tea Party activists.
Obviously, this is bad news for Republicans like
tax-hike-supporting Robert Hurt, but it's
great news if you're a Tom Perriello supporter like me. As
Markos Moulitsas points out, "Third-party conservative challengers are expected in several top-tier races, including freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello’s VA-05 — and a poll last week by conservative pollster Scott Rasmussen found that in a three-way match-up, a hypothetical 'Tea Party' candidate would outpoll the GOP one, 23-18, with Democrats leading the way with 36 percent of the vote." Excellent; go tea partiers! :)
