"Nelson County's Al Weed told Democrats at a breakfast meeting on March 15 that he was 'getting prepared to run' for the 5th District Congressional seat currently held by Republican Virgil Goode.

Weed's recent political activities include heading up Rural Nelson and lobbying the Virginia General Assembly for controlled growth incentives and the preservation of rural character.

Meredith Richards, a member of the Charlottesville City Council, tried to unseat Goode last year. Despite winning nearly two-thirds of the Charlottesville votes, Richards won just 36 percent of votes in the entire 5th District.

Weed did not mention the Richards campaign in his announcement. Acknowledging that the 5th is a conservative district, Weed proposed that many Republican actions and stances on national issues do not represent the constituency.

On economics, separation of church and state and reproductive rights, Weed said there is a difference in the conservative stance and the GOP position. He also criticized the Republican foreign policy 'to abandon alliances' with other nations, saying to all issues: 'That's not conservative; that's Republican.'

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Richards said she was also exploring another run against Goode, but she emphasized that her immediate intention was to help other Democrats in the 5th District and across the Commonwealth win seats on the General Assembly in Richmond.

'I said when I started out that it would take two good tries to beat Virgil Goode,' Richards said. She said last year's campaign was instructive; she knows now what kind of fund-raising and campaigning it will take to win against a 'well-liked incumbent.'

She said that Democrats in Virginia need to concentrate on one election at a time and that Weed's interest in the 5th District seat will not change her campaign plans or timing.

Weed also said that Virginia Democrats would have to run hard in this year's state races because 'Republicans have the power of incumbency to remain in office.' " (Ron Hasson, Observer, March 19, 2003)

Al Weed is an occasional contributor of letters to this website, and we have reported on his activities such as a bid for the Virginia Senate nomination a year and a half ago.