Goode Goes Constitution Party
Trent Hill at the Independent Political Report breaks the story that former Republican Congressman (and before that, former Democratic Congressman) Virgil Goode has joined the Constitution Party. Is Goode eyeing a third-party presidential bid in 2012? It’s a curious move if he plans to try for his old congressional seat. (Update: As Hill notes, polling shows Goode tied with the Democratic incumbent and far ahead of the presumptive Republican nominee in a three-way match-up. It still seems like a risky move, though — “independent” is not necessarily the same thing as “third party nominee” to Virginia voters. It’s a big opportunity for the Constitution Party, though.)
Goode recently wrote at TAC about the need to reduce mass legal immigration as well as the illegal variety.
Dan, thanks for the link. However, I would note that in Virginia the CP doesn’t currently have a ballot line–so Goode would have some options. He could petition for a ballot line as the CP nominee (or rather, have the Virginia CP do it for him), or he could simply run as an independent and tell the CP that he would use their label in Congress (still a big deal). The differences would be very few, opposing candidates are going to make sure voters know he’s with the CP, but the ballot-line of “Independent” is certainly much more appealing to much more of the electorate than “Constitution Party”. Either way, Goode can fundraise from the CP’s national base and scoop up several hundred thousand dollars (ala Jim Gilchrist in ’05).
Frankly, I think a run for Congress makes much more sense. It will actually go somewhere (as opposed to .4% of the vote), it will raise both his profile and that of the CP, etc.
In the end, Goode has been elected to that district as a Democrat, an Independent, and a Republican–I dont think the voters care that much about his party.
I can’t get very excited about this, from what I understand Goode is much more Alan Keyes then Chuck Baldwin. And didn’t he lose his re-election because he was implicated in some kind of porn-financing scandal?
It seems that the “porn-financing scandal” was more a matter of Goode handing out pork indiscriminately, and giving people who hate his social conservatism a chance to ding him on it, than of him intentionally backing the stuff for any reason.
He did vote for the war, though.
The Constitution Party should be proud to have this fine once (and future) Congressman.
[...] Virgil Goode joins Constitution Party [...]
Goode had years to find out what was going with his Congressional Office being used to send material to various gay film festivals. He did not about it until 2008. He told voters he would conduct an investigation because taxpayer funded equipment was used to promote the film. Goode has never told voters what went wrong in his office and why it took him years to find out
Hubris:Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.