"The room full of chattering Young Democrats fell silent as Boyd Tinsley entered Starr Hill Gallery in Charlottesville to mingle - a far cry from the screaming throng the rock star is usually greeted with at vast stadium concerts.

But the star-struck group of khaki-clad collegians quickly surrounded Tinsley, a longtime Democratic Party supporter who was there Saturday to stump for Lovingston vintner Al Weed.

Weed, 61, is challenging four-term incumbent Congressman Virgil H. Goode, R-Rocky Mount, this November in the Fifth District, which stretches from Greene County to the North Carolina border south of Danville and Martinsville - an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

Tinsley, the Dave Matthews Band’s violinist, urged the group to put “Al Weed in Congress and get [President] George Bush out of the White House.”

“We are really stuck in a mess,” Tinsley said, calling this year’s presidential election pivotal. “The economy is going to hell, the war in Iraq is going to hell, we are going backwards.”

Weed agreed that the election will be crucial for the future of the country.

On drives between campaign destinations, the retired Army sergeant said that for the first time the thought has crossed his mind that, “If Bush wins, what other country would I like to live in.”

As they noshed on strawberries and brownies, the pivotal importance of the 2004 president election resonated with many of the 20-something Dems who had spent the day at UVa for a meeting of the Virginia Young Democrats.

UVa graduate Prince Agarwal said that one of the greatest advantages the Democratic Party has going for it is the “anti-Bush backlash.”

“There are a lot of Republicans fed up with” the president, said Agarwal, 23, of Arlington.

Greg Staff, 23, another UVa graduate, said that the environment will play a significant role in how college-age voters choose who should lead the country.

“The major pieces of legislation to protect the environment are being cut,” he said. “It is almost as important as national security.” Staff said he believes that legislators should turn their sights on regulations that emphasize fuel efficiency, something he believes the current administration has ignored.

Meanwhile, Alexandria resident Jennifer Slotnick, 27, believes the still-sputtering economy will weigh heavily on recent graduates’ minds this fall. Slotnick, who received her master’s degree from University of California-Berkeley last May, searched for a year before finally landing a job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I took a job waitressing while searching for a job,” she said. “That’s a job that could have gone to someone without a degree.”

Weed, who wants to improve Southside Virginia’s lagging economy, said he supports the idea of creating a university in the region, which he believes will help create new jobs.

But he believes that it should be a research university, rather than a four-year college as Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine and other lawmakers have proposed.

“It is a known fact that a research college is an economic engine,” he said.

Such a school, Weed said, would restore the competitive edge to a region hit hard by heavy unemployment and losses in the textile manufacturing industry." (David Dadurka, The Daily Progress, April 18, 2004)

Contact David Dadurka at (434) 978-7299 or ddadurka@dailyprogress.com.