"Is the MZM bribery scandal likely to hurt, or even doom, the re-election chances of 5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount?

So far, the political evidence and legal fallout from the murky congressional morass, with tentacles reaching from Washington to California, Florida and Virginia, seems to indicate not much damage for Goode.

Polling data indicate the MZM scandal has not really hurt, or even tickled, the five-term congressman or put a lot of wind in the sails of his Democratic challenger, Al Weed of Nelson County.

Polls released in July are not predictive of voter behavior in November, but the mid-summer snapshots of the race provide a peek at voter preferences.

Weed has touted a Zogby International poll paid for by his campaign that showed a 14-point edge for Goode the last week of June.

Now, Goode is pointing to a more recent survey that he likes better.

The SurveyUSA poll taken for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke July 23-25 showed 59 percent of likely voters favoring Goode to 35 percent for Weed, with 6 percent still undecided. The survey of 417 likely voters - not a huge sample - had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent.

Goode won 64 percent of the vote when challenged by Weed in 2004 to Weed’s 36 percent, so the newer survey is not too far off the results of the last election.

"I just think it’s a more objective poll than Al Weed’s poll," Goode said.

"It’s bogus," said Curt Gleeson, communications director for Weed. He said the Roanoke poll was too heavy on Republicans at 45 percent of the sample, too light on Democrats at 29 percent of those polled and too light on black respondents at 19 percent.

Gleeson said that Goode has done "a wonderful job" of making the MZM bribery scandal "roll off his back. He has played this perfectly as a politician."

Defense contractor MZM Inc., which became Athena Innovative Solutions after founder Mitchell J. Wade sold it in the wake of the bribery scandal, had operated intelligence centers in Charlottesville and Martinsville.

Wade, of Great Falls, was indicted and pleaded guilty in February to multiple felony counts of bribery and corruption. He admitted making $1 million in payoffs to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-California, and making illegal campaign contributions to Goode and Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Florida.

Harris and Goode said they did not do anything wrong in their associations with Wade, who gave Harris at least $32,000 and Goode at least $46,000 in campaign contributions passed through MZM employees. Harris and Goode turned the tainted contributions over to charities.

"I did not personally benefit from MZM, or from any other entity or from any person," Goode said in a statement last week. "The Goode for Congress campaign unknowingly received some straw contributions from MZM employees. Many contributions from MZM personnel were legal. I do not know which were straw and which were not. The Goode for Congress campaign gave all contributions related to MZM personnel, whether straw or legal, to Fifth District charities."

In the past week, the intelligence center in Martinsville operated by MZM successor Athena announced the loss of a Pentagon contract and started closing its doors, with a loss of about 30 jobs.

Wade’s guilty plea said he made the illegal pass-through contributions to the Harris and Goode campaigns because he believed that they "had the ability to request appropriations funding that would benefit MZM."

In March of 2003 and March of 2005, Wade gave MZM employees and their spouses money to make $2,000 contributions to Goode’s campaigns but did not tell Goode or his staff "that the contributions were unlawful," Wade’s guilty plea states.

"In the spring of 2005, Wade asked that [Goode] and his staff request appropriations funding for an MZM facility in [Goode’s] district," the federal court document states. In June of 2005, Goode’s "staff confirmed to Wade that an appropriations bill would include $9 million for the facility and a related program."

Goode has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

He said the loss of the Martinsville facility he helped fund through an earmark appropriation was closing as a result of losing its Pentagon contract due to bad publicity surrounding the MZM bribery scandal.

"I cannot help but believe the recent negative publicity surrounding the former president and former owner of the property, prior to Athena, contributed to the decision by [Pentagon officials]," Goode said in a statement.

Gleeson said that Goode "has some nerve to blame bad publicity when it is illegal activity" that apparently led to the loss of the contract, which the Pentagon had not sought in the first place.

The Zogby survey taken for Weed’s campaign asked some questions about the MZM scandal; and those polled, when informed about the scandal and the illegal contributions and other statements about Goode, were less likely to support Goode, Gleeson said.

"When we told people about the positives and negatives about Virgil Goode and Al Weed, Virgil loses 9 points, from 49 percent to 40 percent," Gleeson said Aug. 4. "Al gains five points, from 35 percent to 40 percent."

In other words, if Weed’s campaign can come up with enough campaign cash to tell voters its side of the MZM story, the race can theoretically tighten up to about even.

So far, Weed’s spin on the scandal and how it appears to touch Goode has not reached voters or changed minds. Weed has about 90 days left to make and sell his case." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, August 6, 2006)