"In a second matchup, 5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. defeated Nelson County Democratic challenger Al Weed on Tuesday in a tighter election than their 2004 contest.

With 100 percent of the 5th’s precincts reporting, Goode received 124,937 votes, while Weed took in 84,292, and independent candidate Joseph P. Oddo got 1,906.

In 2004, Goode won by a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent. This year he received 59 percent of the vote while Weed got 40 percent. [But see Goode and Drake Hurt Least in Virginia]

Goode won in a tough election cycle for Republicans nationally.

“I was pleased with the turnout and with the vote totals,” Goode said of his race.

Weed took Albemarle County by more than 3,000 votes this year after narrowly losing the increasingly blue county in 2004.

Weed saw his totals increase in Charlottesville as well, winning the indigo-blue city by 5,979. He took the city by 5,638 in 2004.

Weed’s native Nelson County went for him as well, 52 percent to 47 percent.

Those margins weren’t enough to make up for the rural areas south of the James River, where he was clobbered by as much as 44 points in Campbell County.

Goode took his native Franklin County 71 percent to 28 percent.

“You do everything you can,” Weed said while awaiting the results. “You’re a Democrat. You hope for good turnout. We got that.”

Weed, a Nelson County farmer and decorated veteran, said he hadn’t thought about whether he would run again in 2008.

Goode pledged to stay on top of the issues of illegal immigration and U.S. dependence on foreign energy.

“I’ll continue working on the illegal immigration problem, which, I think, is huge for this country, and also continuing on the need to be free from the need for foreign fossil fuel,” Goode said.

Asked about the prospect of being in the minority party for the first time since he was elected to Congress in 1996, Goode said he hoped to work in a bipartisan manner, which, he believes, should at least be possible on the issue of energy independence.

Possible advances in technology using switchgrass for energy could prove advantageous for the rural parts of the 5th District.

Oddo, who garnered less than 1 percent of the vote, said he was nevertheless happy with the totals.

“I expected to win, which I did,” he said. “I won because I ran.”" (John Yellig, The Daily Progress, November 8, 2006)