"Democrat Meredith Richards challenged Fifth District incumbent Republican Rep. Virgil Goode on Wednesday to return $5,000 in campaign contributions from a poultry producer which, she said, has sent jobs to Mexico.

Richards is seeking to unseat Goode in the Nov. 5 general election.

Richards, speaking at the local Democratic Party's campaign headquarters in Martinsville, said campaign finance reports document that Goode received five $1,000 contributions from people connected with Pilgrim's Pride, which she said is "Mexico's second largest chicken company."

Richards, who said she, like Goode, opposes NAFTA, added that Pilgrim's Pride executives praise NAFTA and the company "invested heavily in our Mexico facilities."

"Why take thousands of dollars from Mexico's chicken executive while our jobs are going overseas?" she asked.

Goode said that is not the case. "My research showed that Pilgrim's Pride's facility in Mexico was there seven years before NAFTA" was approved by Congress, he said, adding that his investigation was preliminary. "The chicken is processed there for Mexicans."

"I don't care whether someone gave me a donation or not; I'm still not supporting NAFTA," the Free Trade Agreement, Fast Track and other agreements that have shifted manufacturing jobs outside the United States, Goode said.

Richards also said Pilgrim's Pride announced "the largest recall of meat in American history, a recall that occurred after an outbreak of listeria killed 23 Americans and made more than 100 others sick."

According to The Associated Press, on Oct. 14 Pilgrim's Pride announced the recall of 27.4 million pounds of cooked sandwich meat after warnings of possible contamination from the listeria bacteria -- the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

The company initially recalled 295,000 pounds of turkey and chicken products from the Franconia, Pa., plant, but it expanded the recall after tests came back positive for a strain of the potentially fatal bacteria, the AP reported.

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is the second largest poultry producer in the United States and the second largest chicken company in Mexico, according to its Web site. Goode said its Virginia operations mainly are in the Shenandoah Valley.

Goode said his campaign will investigate the donation from Pilgrim's Pride, and if Richards' charges prove true, he will return the contribution and it will not affect his votes.

Richards also announced a plan to put computers in the hands of less fortunate children in the Fifth District.

As a member of Charlottesville City Council, Richards said she and others founded a program called Computers4Kids.

She said the program takes donated computers, printers and monitors and upgrades them with new technology. It then provides an entire computer system to local families with children as well as volunteer mentors who teach the children how to use the technology.

"As a member of Congress," Richards said, "I want to do the same thing across the entire Fifth District.

"I have always believed in solving problems and keeping promises rather than yelling about them," she added." (Bo Brown, The Martinsville Bulletin, November 1, 2002)