"Charlottesville consultant Bern Ewert, a former deputy city manager who also served as Roanoke's city manager from 1978 to 1985, attacked the economic and war policies of President Bush on Saturday while launching a bid for Congress.

Ewert, 63, said he is running for Congress in Virginia's Greene County-to-Danville 5th District as a Democrat "sick and tired of being sick and tired of the mismanagement of the American government by ideologues and incompetents."

He made his announcement in Charlottesville, where he was credited with being a moving force behind creation of the Downtown Mall more than 30 years ago, as well as in Bedford and Danville.

"Let's laugh Virgil [Goode] out of Congress and bring in adult supervision to keep Bush in line," said Ewert, flanked on the Downtown Mall by supporters Charles Barbour and Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, both former mayors.

Ewert accused Bush and Goode of dealing in "empty slogans put forth as policy." He said they would be laughed out of any courthouse or city hall in Virginia if they went there to sell economic policies "with tax cuts for the richest 5 percent of Americans and paid for by raiding Social Security with no plan to pay the money back."

He criticized Bush's Iraqi war policy and called for bringing all American troops home from Iraq within two years.

"The Iraqis need a clear schedule that establishes once and for all that they can, will and must take control of their own country," Ewert said. "Twenty-four months from today is reasonable."

In his announcement, he stressed the importance of strengthening the American middle class, rebuilding the nation's military and "regaining our position our position of moral leadership at home and in the world."

"We can begin with re-establishing ethical values in Congress," Ewert said. "Virgil Goode can start by returning Tom DeLay's PAC money and the nearly $90,000 he received from the corrupt MZM corporation."

Ewert's bid for the Democratic Party nomination to oppose Goode next November guarantees a spirited race for the party's nod with Nelson County vineyard owner Al Weed, who announced a second bid for Goode's seat last month.

Weed, 63, is a combat veteran of Vietnam who served 42 years in the military. He won 36 percent of the vote in his 2004 challenge to Goode, a five-term congressman first elected as a conservative Democrat who later switched parties, becoming a GOP-caucusing independent in 2000 and a Republican in 2002.

In the 2004 election, Goode won 172,431 votes, a total that was 13,863 more than Bush received on the same Republican ticket in the 5th District and was 74,194 votes more than Weed received. Weed ran 23,723 votes behind Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in the 5th.

Van Yahres said Democrats need a fresh face against Goode next year.

Ewert, he said, "has a very good chance for the nomination. Obviously he does have the strength to make it. I think we are looking for a fresh face. I think that this is what Bern offers" along with qualifications as a former city manager in Roanoke and county executive from 1997 to 2000 in Prince William County.

"I think Al has shown a very capable race, but it's a tough district" for a Democrat, Van Yahres said.

Ewert and Weed have called for Goode to give back the approximately $90,000 in campaign funds he has received from MZM, the congressman's largest contributor the past three years.

MZM, which has worked closely with the U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, has local offices in Albemarle near the NGIC's building. Goode helped the firm locate another facility in job-starved Martinsville in his district.

A Washington-based group with Democratic affiliations, Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, issued a call Friday for Goode to donate to charity the contributions he received from MZM, which recently was tied to bribery of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican who served on the House Appropriations Committee with Goode.

Goode, 59, said Friday he is considering requests to return more than the $600 in contributions he returned three months ago to MZM employees requesting their money back." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, December 4, 2005)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.