Tom Perriello

Tom Perriello
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Virgil Goode
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Parent(s)	Dr. and Mrs. Vito Perriello, Jr.
Residence	Ivy, Virginia
Alma mater	Yale Law School (J.D.) Yale University (B.A.)
Profession	Attorney
Website	Campaign website House website

Thomas Stuart Price "Tom" Perriello (Template:Pron-en; born October 9, 1974) is an American politician and attorney. He is the Democratic congressman from the fifth district of Virginia. The district includes much of Southside Virginia, and stretches north to Charlottesville.

He was first elected in 2008 after defeating Republican incumbent Virgil Goode in his bid for reelection.

Early life and education

Perriello is a lifelong resident of Ivy, a small unincorporated community west of Charlottesville. However, he is listed in the House roll as "D-Charlottesville." He attended Murray Elementary School, Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, Henley Middle School and Western Albemarle High School in the county school system, and then graduated from St. Anne's-Belfield School, a private school. He earned B.A. (1996) and J.D. (2001) degrees at Yale University, where he also became a member of Scroll and Key {{citation}}: Empty citation (help). He attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 114 in Ivy, and was a legislative page in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Early career

From 2002-03, Perriello was Special Advisor to the international prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he worked with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups, and helped to prosecute warlords. He later became the Court's Spokesman and helped to indict Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, peacefully forcing him from power. He has worked as a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice in Kosovo (2003), Darfur (2005), and Afghanistan (2007) where he worked on justice-based security strategies. Perriello has also been a fellow at The Century Foundation and consultant to the National Council of Churches of Christ. He helped to launch FaithfulAmerica.org, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and is a co-founder of DarfurGenocide.org and Avaaz.org, an international on-line community of 3.3 million members, operating in 12 languages, dedicated to building a global response to "problems without borders" such as climate change. He has also worked with the Rev. James Forbes on prophetic justice principles.

Perriello, a resident of Albemarle County, has spent much of his career working in West Africa and the Middle East to create strategies for sustainable peace, and he was involved in the peace processes that helped end the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. As a public entrepreneur, he has helped to launch organizations and movements focused on social justice and human rights. He is a founding partner of Res Publica, which develops innovative solutions to global justice and security threats, and of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which has worked since the 2004 election to help balance and expand the faith and values discourse in America.

U.S. Congress

During the 2009 legislative session, Perriello's first term in Congress, Periello voted for the stimulus bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and the health care reform bill in March 2010. In addition, he voted against the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, because the bill extended unemployment benefits for only some states and excluded Virginia.

Foreign Policy and Defense Spending

Perriello has been a supporter of the War on Terror and Iraq War. He visited Afghanistan as a consultant to The International Center for Transitional Justice prior to becoming a Congressman. He has cast many votes for the continuation of US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He opposes removing troops from Pakistan.

As of August 2010, Congressman Perriello has voted yes on over $700 billion towards American militarism for the 2010 fiscal year.

Congressman Perriello supports the 713+ (excluding Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and all black sites) military bases the US military currently occupies overseas.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
  • Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
• Committee on Veterans' Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
  • Subcommittee on Health

Electoral history

2008

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2008 § District 5

In the 2008 election, Perriello launched a campaign based on conviction politics, achieving a surprise win over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode, a longtime figure in Virginia politics, after having trailed Goode in the polls by 32% only three months earlier. Goode had represented a large portion of the district for 38 years, including representing much of the southwest portion of the district in the Senate of Virginia prior to serving in Congress.

The traditionally Democratic urban areas of the district gave Perriello significant margins over Goode. While Goode won 13 of the 20 county-level jurisdictions in the district, Perriello won all but one independent city, Bedford which went for Goode by only 16 votes. Ultimately, Perriello prevailed largely on the strength of a more than 25,000 vote margin in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County. Perriello's performance showed the most dramatic improvements over past Democratic voting in the more conservative areas of the district hardest hit by decades of job loss and economic slowdown. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama also improved on past Democratic performance, but he ultimately lost this district by around 7,500 votes (2.5 percentage points). For example, Perriello significantly outperformed Obama in the strongly conservative southwestern portion of the district (ironically, where Goode is from). Perriello may also have been helped by coattails from atop the ticket, as Mark Warner won the district in a landslide with 65 percent of the vote.

2010

Main article: Virginia's 5th congressional district election, 2010

Perriello will face Republican State Senator Robert Hurt in the 2010 congressional elections. On December 3, 2009, political commentator Stuart Rothenberg listed Perriello as one of the twelve most vulnerable incumbents in the House of Representatives up for reelection in 2010.

2010 Tea Party incident

The FBI is currently investigating an incident in which Perriello's brother's address was listed on a Tea Party movement website, mistakenly believed to be the congressman's address. Mike Troxel, an organizer for the Lynchburg Tea Party, posted the address on his blog, encouraging tea party activists to "drop by." A gas line to an outdoor barbecue grill was cut at the brother's house and is being treated as a threat to Perriello over his vote on healthcare reform during the 111th Congress.

External links

• Congressman Tom Perriello official U.S. House site
• Tom Perriello for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Tom Perriello at Curlie