Editor, The Herald:

In less than one month voters of the 5th District will elect their Congressman. The Republican challenger, Robert Hurt, has a slim lead in most polls, and the incumbent, Tom Perriello, has, predictably, gone negative. But then, what else could he do? Run on his record of voting in lockstep with Pelosi and the leftist majority?

To put a fine point on Mr. Perriello's integrity, in my opinion, all we have to do is go back to the town hall meeting here in Farmville last year. The hot topic was the pending health care legislation, and sentiment in the room was heavily opposed to the government takeover of our health care system. Mr. Perriello was asked twice how he would vote. Twice, I recall him saying, “I could only vote for the bill if it were deficit-neutral.” In Washington-speak, that means that the overall cost of the takeover would not increase our already overwhelming debt.

Well, Mr. Perriello did in fact cast his vote to put the government in charge of all our health care, and it was certainly NOT deficit-neutral. Along with the other socialist measures passed by congress, it increases our national debt from 9 to 13 Trillion dollars. So, we must ask, does Mr. Perriello have a short memory of his promises, or does he suffer from an integrity deficit?

There's an old saying carried over from colonial times; “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Voters of the 5th district, let's not be fooled twice. Give Mr. Perriello his pink slip this November.

John Jamieson

Farmville