"Republican Rep. Virgil Goode is accusing his Democratic opponent Al Weed of sponsoring a “nasty letter” contest to encourage supporters to write anti-Goode letters to Virginia newspapers.

Weed’s campaign called the claim “ridiculous,” saying there has never been a letter-writing contest nor a reward offered in exchange for published opinions.

The jabs are the latest in an increasingly heated race for the Fifth District seat in Congress, which is pitting Democrat-turned-Republican incumbent Goode against challenger Weed, a Nelson County vintner, for the second consecutive election.

A Goode press release said Weed asked former Democratic Del. Barnie Day to attend a lunch in Charlottesville as an award for the writer of the nastiest letter to make it onto a Virginia opinion page.

Day, who served as a delegate from the Martinsville area from 1997 until 2001, said in an interview Monday that he does not have a personal or working relationship with Weed and has supported Goode in past elections.

Day said he was caught off guard by Weed’s lunch request during a phone call about a week ago. Day said he asked Weed to send him an example of a “nasty” letter. He said the letter never arrived and Weed never called him again.

“It just disgusted me,” said Day. “The longer I thought about it, I thought, ‘Good god, I just want no part in this.’ I think it’s this type of foolishness that turns people off on politics and elected officials anyway.”

Curt Gleeson, communications director for Weed’s campaign, said Weed did recently talk to Day, but not about a letter-writing contest. Gleeson said Weed called because Day is a former Democratic elected official.

“Al reached out to him,” said Gleeson, “and I wasn’t in the room when they talked, but Al did say they talked about letters, but not to the extent that it came out in that statement. Absolutely not.”

Gleeson said he is in charge of helping supporters contact their local newspapers. He said he identifies timely topics and tracks down editors’ e-mail addresses for supporters. He said he never promotes slander.

Both campaigns accused the other of sparking personal attacks Monday.

Goode and Weed both called on each other to take the political high road and focus on the issues.

“I hope this campaign will be about the issues facing Central and Southside Virginia, not personal attacks,” Goode said in his press release.

Weed’s campaign fired back with a press release Monday afternoon entitled: “Pledge for a clean campaign.”

The statement from Weed calls for Goode to stop personal attacks and engage in conversations about the issues. He encourages supporters to write letters about his opponent’s political performance:

“Mr. Goode is playing politics when he should be working as our representative,” Weed said in the press release. “It is time for the games to stop.”

Neither Weed nor Goode returned requests for comment by early Monday evening." (Blair Goldstein, Lynchburg News & Advance, August 14, 2006)