"Does Al Weed Stand a Chance?" Cville Weekly piece on 5th District race

This week's Charlottesville C-ville Weekly has a front-page article on the 5th District congressional race:

http://www.c-ville.com

(there is no permanent URL until the story is archived).

Despite the cover question, it's a good background piece on Al and his long-time incumbent opponent Virgil Goode. Charlottesville is Weed country, of course, but C-ville does a good job of explaining why Goode has such a solid base in Southside Virginia ("his daddy was a great guy" plus he brings home the occasional bacon from D.C.), but also digs out some of the growing discontent with Goode and more generally Republican policies in the rural counties.

A Kerry win in Virginia this year would be big. An Al Weed win will be huge, an indication of a tectonic shift in Virginia politics.

Dems usually run a Charlottesville politician in the District, who gets tagged as too liberal in the rural counties.

Al Weed is a farmer (he runs a vineyard in rural Nelson County) plus he served in the Army.

Al is pretty damn liberal. Just not in an elitist Charlottesville way. :)

The article suggests that his main problem in Southside is still name recognition.