It's official: Rep. Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, has conceded defeat against Democratic Rep.-Elect Tom Perriello.
Goode asked for a recount after the certified total gave Perriello a 745-vote lead out of over 300,000 votes cast. The chance of turning around that kind of deficit was nearly non-existent, and now that the recount has finished Goode has conceded via press release.
The interesting thing here is that Goode was an absolutely safe occupant of this seat until this cycle -- to most people it didn't even seem possible that he could lose this year until the final week or two of the campaign. One has to wonder if his angry remarks against Ellison made the difference, turning him from a secure incumbent into a cartoon character.
Here's one Republican Congressman who just won't give up, no matter how long the odds.
A source close to Rep. Virgil Goode -- the colorful Virginia Republican best known for fiercely denouncing the 2006 election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress -- tells Election Central that Goode will call for a recount at a press conference set to begin shortly, after the state elections board today certified a 745-vote margin of victory for Dem opponent Tom Perriello.
The final numbers: Perriello 158,712 votes, Goode 157,967.
Goode is fully entitled to a state-paid recount under Virginia law, but the chance of success seems very slim to say the least, given the number of votes cast in this race and the size of Perriello's lead. Relatively speaking, this would be as if Al Franken had gone into the Minnesota recount trailing Norm Coleman by over 7,000 votes, instead of Coleman's shaky 215-vote lead.
Late Update: The Goode campaign has made it official, announcing in a press release that he is seeking a recount.
Here's the latest on two key House races that are still up in the air and both seemingly headed for recounts. In one race, the Democrats may have just fallen short in a deep-red district, though there are still a lot more ballots to tally up -- and in another, they may have just succeeded in picking off a GOP incumbent that few people would have predicted.
In California's Fourth District, the open seat of scandal-plagued GOP Congressman John Doolittle, an audit will be conducted of 10% of the district's voting machines -- the first step under state law in deciding whether to proceed with a full recount. Republican candidate Tom McClintock currently leads the 2006 Dem nominee Charlie Brown by only 889 votes out of over 300,000 votes counted so far, with 40,000 ballots still to be counted across both candidates' strongholds.
In Virginia's Fifth District, home to the cartoonishly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim GOP Rep. Virgil Goode, the numbers between himself and Dem challenger Tom Perriello keep shifting. On Friday, Perriello declared victory and began his transition, but Goode has not conceded. As of right now, Perriello leads by 745 votes, and it's not implausible to imagine the race going back to Goode. By the time the race is certified on November 24, it will likely be so close that the losing candidate is entitled to a request a full recount at the state's expense.
Palin: My Comments About The Country Of Africa Were "Taken Out Of Context"
Sarah Palin is defending herself from the allegation that she thought Africa was a single country, and not a continent: "If there are allegations based on questions or comments I made in debate prep about NAFTA -- about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there -- then those were taken out of context." Note: There is no such country that is simply called "Africa."
McCain To Do Post-Election Appearance With Leno
John McCain will do his first post-defeat TV appearance on Jay Leno, going a similar route as Bob Dole's 1996 appearances on comedy shows in order to give the public a positive and light-hearted image. McCain will stop by the show on Tuesday, in honor of Veteran's Day.
Bill Ayers Speaks: McCain And Palin Lost Points From Attacking Me
In a new essay for In These Times, Bill Ayers comments on how his past associations with Barack Obama became a spectacle in this election. "The good news was that every time McCain or Palin mentioned my name, they lost a point or two in the polls," Ayers writes. "The cartoon invented to hurt Obama was now poking holes in the rapidly sinking McCain-Palin ship."
GOP Rep. Reichert Narrowly Wins Re-Election
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) has been projected the winner in his rematch against 2006 Democratic opponent Darcy Burner, who has now conceded the race. With 81% of votes counted, Reichert leads by a 52%-48% margin, and the remaining votes are not likely to change the situation significantly.
Goode's Opponent Declares Victory, But Recount Looms
Tom Perriello, the Democratic challenger against right-wing Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), has declared victory with current results showing him ahead by 745 votes out of over 316,000 total votes cast. Goode has not conceded, and a recount is likely to occur, which would delay an official verdict on the race for several weeks.
Democrats Pick Up GOPer Gilchrest's Seat In Maryland
Democrats have picked up a deep-red House seat in Maryland, with Democrat Frank Kratovil defeating Republican Andy Harris by a narrow margin. Harris won the Republican nomination in a primary challenge against the incumbent moderate GOP Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who then turned around after his defeat and campaigned for Kratovil.
McCain Headed To Georgia For Chambliss
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) will be getting some major help in his upcoming runoff against Dem challenger Jim Martin: John McCain, who carried Georgia 52%-47%, and will be coming to the state to campaign for Chambliss' re-election. The runoff could potentially have lower turnout than the November election, so it will become all about which party can better energize and bring out its base.
Chambliss Uses 9/11 Imagery In New Ad
Check out this ad from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), as he heads into his December runoff against Democrat Jim Martin:
"When our country was under attack, we trusted Saxby Chambliss," the announcer says to images of 9/11. What's next -- will Chambliss redo his old ads from 2002 tying Dem incumbent Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, and just Photoshop in Jim Martin?
Another House GOPer has been caught up in the national Democratic wave. CNN and NBC have projected that Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA) has been defeated by Democratic challenger Glenn Nye, a businessman and former diplomat.
With 100% of precincts reporting, Nye has 52% of the vote to Drake's 48%. Drake was previously targeted by the Dems in 2006, but narrowly held on against her opponent that year. This time, she wasn't so lucky.
Meanwhile, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, may have been defeated. His Dem opponent has even predicted victory in a very tight race, though news organizations have yet to call the race.
Here's today's run-down of the Congressional races:
GOP Ad: "We Know John Murtha Doesn't Respect Us"
Here's the NRCC's new ad against Jack Murtha, replaying the video of Murtha calling his constituents racists and rednecks:
The latest polls show the once-safe Murtha now locked in a tight race with his unknown GOP opponent. If Murtha loses, this will end up being remembered as the Democratic version of a "Macaca Moment."
Dem Ad: Bachmann's Claims About Financial Regulation Are Literally Laughable
The DCCC has this new ad against the notorious Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), featuring video of her getting laughed at by a debate audience when she said the financial crisis was caused by too much regulation of Wall St.:
Bachmann was well on track for victory before her McCarthyist rant on Hardball, but the DCCC really smells blood in the water -- the latest FEC filings showed them buying up over half a million dollars in advertising against her.
Republicans struggling to "define" Obama
Leading Republicans are beginning to complain that the McCain campaign hasn't yet settled on a way of "defining" -- a.k.a. "sliming" -- Barack Obama, prompting some to worry that Obama may prove as elusive a target for them as he did for Hillary. It's worth noting that the multiple GOP lines of attack floating around right now clearly contradict each other: One moment Obama's an elitist at a country club; the next he's a "street" organizer; and so on.
Candidates celebrating July 4th
Barack Obama will honor Independence Day with his family by attending a parade and a picnic in Montana. Meanwhile, McCain will be taking it easy in his home state of Arizona.
Poll: Slightly more see McCain as a flip-flopper
New numbers from CNN suggest that a substantial majority doesn't buy the McCain-as-straight-talker narrative. The poll finds that 61% say McCain shifts positions for political reasons, though nearly as many (59%) say the same about Obama.
Six-term GOP Congressman in Virginia suddenly facing competitive challenger
The emergence of a tough and well-funded Democratic challenger to GOP Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr., who represents south-central Virginia's fifth district, has prompted CQ Politics to shift its rating of the race from Safe Republican to Republican Favored, essentially declaring the contest a competitive one. Goode's challenger, lawyer Tom Perriello, is expected to run well in and near Charlottesville, especially among liberal academics around the University of Virginia, and will also benefit from Obama's vigorous efforts in the state.
McCain to talk about the economy in key battleground states next week
McCain plans to spend the week following July 4th weekend talking about the economy in important battleground states, beginning on Monday with the release of a jobs plan in Colorado. McCain, who will also visit Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, trails Obama in polls by a substantial margin among voters citing the economy as a top concern.
Obama's national lead over McCain edges up
CNN's latest poll of polls finds Obama leading McCain by six points in the national match-up, up very slightly from his five-point lead last week. A cautionary note: On July 4th, 2004, John Kerry led George W. Bush by four points in CNN's poll of polls, and in the summer of 2000, Bush led Al Gore by six points before going on to lose the popular vote (and becoming president anyway).
Conservative pundits begin lying about Obama's Iraq remarks
Right-wing opinion-makers have begun falsifying Obama's Iraq remarks yesterday, starting with Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post, who has a remarkably dishonest column this morning asserting as fact that Obama has "already begun" his "shift" in the direction of erasing "all meaningful differences with McCain on withdrawal from Iraq." Curiously, there's no mention in Krauthammer's column of the subsequent presser Obama held yesterday firmly reiterating his commitment to a 16-month withdrawal timetable.
This is great. We now count three House Republicans who have continued to peddle the myth that China is working with Cuba to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, even though Dick Cheneyhad already admitted it was bunk.
The latest: Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, on the grounds that Ellison is a Muslim.
Goode faces a potentially tough challenge from Tom Periello, an international human rights worker who has been aggressively advertising on Christian radio and has also been able to raise a decent amount of money. So Goode's message to his base is clear: Vote for the Dems, and you're voting for China.
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), best known for his attack on Rep. Keith Ellison's (D-MN) use of the Koran for his swearing in ceremony, has attracted several Democrats who hope to topple him next year -- the latest of whom is Tom Perriello, an Albemarle County resident who has worked in Asia and Africa, founded a Catholic relief agency and has experience with other progressive faith-based groups.
In comments made to The Daily Progress, Perriello said his campaign will focus more on "the difference between right and wrong than the difference between right and left."
Perriello faces economic historian David Shreve and former state trooper Brydon Jackson for the Democratic nomination, although Perriello begins his campaign with an early financial edge -- he's already collected nearly $110K in four weeks of fundraising, while Shreve has raised $20K.
A top official at a leading Muslim group has just told us that GOP Rep. Virgil Goode's fear that U.S. money may soon be stamped with "In Muhammad We Trust" is rather at odds with the actual history and theology of the Muslim religion. As this expert points out — and as some TPM Readers have noted, too — Muslims don't worship Muhammad. They are monotheists worshiping a single God, called Allah in Arabic — not the individual Muhammad.
"There are many Islamic traditions that reinforce that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a human being, and he should not be worshipped," Ibrahim Hooper, the national communications director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, tells us. So the notion that any Muslim would want "In Muhammad We Trust" written on U.S. money is, to put it charitably, nonsense.
"In Muhammad We Trust." That's what GOP Rep. Virgil Goode says that U.S. money risks being marked with — that is, if we don't support escalation of the Iraq war as part of our broader efforts to stave off Muslim domination of the United States in general. "In Muhammad We Trust." Goode, you may recall, sparked a national controversy back in December by saying that the U.S. should close its borders lest it be overrun by frightening hordes of Muslims. To watch Goode's surreal moment on video, click here.
It looks as if Virgil Goode's attack on Rep. Keith Ellion's use of the Koran for his swearing in hasn't gone over well with at least one of his constituents: Goode's district office in Charlottesville, Virginia, was vandalized. A local paper called The Hook reports that his office window sported a curious new addition: The word "BIGOT" stenciled on it in gold paint. Interestingly, the word was very carefully stencilled on, just under his name and title and in a similar shade of gold, so as to make the word "BIGOT" look almost like an official part of his job description. Asked by the paper if it might be a reaction to his anti-Muslim comments, a Goode spokesperson declined to comment. View a picture of the vandalized office here.
Update: Hook senior editor Courtney Stuart has informed Election Central that the graffiti is not there anymore — but was there for several days straight. "Our reporter first noticed it on December 29 and it was still there the morning of Tuesday, January 2. It was removed later that day after our paper went to press," Stuart told EC by e-mail. Our original post implied that the vandalism was still there.
It's official: Rep. Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) as the first Muslim member of Congress, has conceded defeat against Democratic Rep.-Elect Tom Perriello.
Here's one Republican Congressman who just won't give up, no matter how long the odds.
This is great. We now count three House Republicans who have continued to peddle the myth that China is working with Cuba to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, even though Dick Cheney 
