"A pair of candidates for Congress traded barbs Tuesday over a mailing in which Nelson County Democrat Al Weed attacked Charlottesville Democrat Bern Ewert on three fronts as someone who “just can’t beat Virgil Goode.”

“My campaign has taken the high road,” Ewert told a news conference in downtown Charlottesville as he was flanked by several supporters, including former Del. Mitchell Van Yahres and City Councilor Kendra Hamilton.

“I might have expected these tactics from the Republicans but I never imagined I would be smeared by a fellow Democrat,” Ewert said of the brochure that Weed mailed to several thousand Democrats. “The distortions and lies in Weed’s flier and on blogs are almost unbelievable.”

Weed and Ewert are vying for the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Goode, R-Rocky Mount, in the Nov. 7 election. Democratic mass meetings Monday night in Charlottesville and Albemarle County will select delegates to the May 20 nominating convention at Buckingham County High School that will choose between Ewert and Weed.

Weed’s flier suggests Ewert violated Federal Election Commission filing rules, says Ewert was fired from a job he left after six years at Explore Park near Roanoke and asks why a pair of civil rights groups supposedly opposed his permanent hiring for a Galveston, Texas, city manager’s job he held on an interim basis.

“I am in compliance with all FEC reporting regulations,” Ewert said. He said he was not fired at Explore Park but left after two three-year contracts expired and he produced a statement from a former Galveston mayor denying any public or legal effort to prevent Ewert from being appointed city manager.

Weed said he stands by the charges he made in the mailing and said reporting in Danville, Roanoke and Houston daily newspapers supports his assertions.

The FEC regulations provide fines and jail terms for failing to file campaign financial reports by certain deadlines, which Weed said Ewert missed by a few months in one case.

A Cumberland County Democrat filed a complaint against Ewert with the FEC after reading a Danville newspaper account that he had raised more than $20,000 before any FEC filing, Weed said.

“He still was two-and-a-half months late on [an initial] filing,” Weed said of Ewert. “Here’s a man who’s running for Congress who appears to have no concern for the rules we all have to deal with. That’s a concern to me.”

Weed said a 1996 Houston Chronicle newspaper story outlined the civil rights groups’ attempt to get a court order to prevent Ewert from being appointed as a permanent city manager, citing a $98,500 salary during a time of city belt-tightening.

As for Explore Park along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke, Weed said, “What we understood from the newspaper was that he was just a very prickly person and there were a lot of questions about his compensation at $150,000 a year and what was being accomplished.”

“His contract was not renewed, fair enough,” Weed said of the mailing’s charge that Ewert was fired.

Van Yahres said at Ewert’s news conference that he was surprised and disappointed at Weed’s attack brochure mailing to fellow Democrats.

“I was surprised because I thought more of Al,” Van Yahres said. “I think it shows where we’re going in our campaigns these days with negative advertising. I’m sure Bern can answer each one. I hope the public will listen to the true facts.”

Ewert released fundraising totals Tuesday that he said were being filed with the FEC for the first three months of 2006 showing that his campaign raised $33,215 and spent $33,285, leaving him with almost the entire amount of a $10,000 personal loan from January as cash on hand as of March 31.

Weed had $47,461 in cash on hand at the end of March and had raised about $93,000 and spent more than $47,000. His last three-month fund-raising total of $65,333 was larger than Goode’s take for the quarter of $53,461, but Goode was sitting on a campaign kitty of $466,110 in cash on hand.

Ewert and Weed each claimed a slight delegate lead over the other after several county Democratic Party mass meetings Monday.

Weed said he has six delegates to the May 20 convention committed to him while four are committed to Ewert and 14 are uncommitted from the meetings in Bedford City, Campbell County, Charlotte County and Brunswick County.

The Ewert campaign claimed it has four committed delegates to three for Weed and 16 uncommitted." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, April 19, 2006)

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