"Fifth District Republicans embraced independent Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. yesterday as if he were one of their own."

"The 5th District GOP convention unanimously endorsed the one-time democrat as their candidate for re-election in the Southside district."

"Goode, in turn, accepted the endorsement, praised Republicans from the presidential level to the General Assembly level and showed his appreciation by treating the 200 delegates to box lunches."

"The delegates passed out 'Welcome Virgil!' stickers with the GOP elephant symbol and planted signs with the same message along the road leading to the Hampton Sydney College campus."

"Goode passed out campaign buttons with pictures of himself, Republican Senate candidate George Allen and presumed presidential candidate George W. Bush."

"Goode, a Rocky Mount lawyer, was a Democrat, albeit a very conservative one, until January, when he announced that he was leaving the party that had elected him to office for 27 years. A week later he said he would caucus with the Republican Party in the House of Representatives."

"Looking comfortable in the Republican surroundings, the congressman guessed that many of the people in the audience where the convention was held had voted for him in the past, despite his Democratic party label."

"He defeated a Republican to first win election to Congress in 1996."

"Allen, the former governor now running against Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb, proposed the resolution welcoming Goode 'with open arms to our convention' and praising him as a 'principled' leader who 'has not taken the easy road.'"

"'Whereas in the tradition of 5th District Virginians like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson he has stood for solid conservative values no matter how much pressure has been brought on him from any quarter,' the resolution reads."

"No one dissented."

"For his part, Goode praised Allen and took a swipe at Robb."

"'We like cowboy boots in the 5th district and we are proud of a statewide candidate who uses that product
whose roots go deep in Southside Virginia,' he said. When he announced, Robb said he was not frightened by 'big talk, big-heeled boots or a big chew of tobacco.'"

"Allen wears cowboy boots and dips snuff."

"Goode promised to campaign on Allen's behalf from "Ararat to Dundas and from the Gordonsville Road in Albemarle County to the North Carolina border.' Those are the far reaches of the 5th district, which covers a broad area of Southside Virginia. Goode decried the Clinton administration's attacks on the tobacco industry."

"'At the national level we need a chief executive who will lead this nation in a harmonizing manner, like Governor Bush has done in Texas, and not like what's been going on for the past four years pitting one group against another,' he said. 'We can't stand another four years of having a constant attack on tobacco.'" (Tyler Whitley, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 14, 2000).