PDA Virginia Endorses Al Weed in the 5th Congressional District

Candidate Al Weed

On April 8, the Virginia PDA endorsed farmer, entrepreneur and community leader Al Weed for Congress in Virginia's 5th CD. Geographically huge, larger than the entire state of New Jersey, and corresponding sparsely populated, the 5th is largely rural, sitting like a huge triangle with its apex at the north anchored by the heavily liberal city of Charlottesburg, home of the University of Virginia, and extending all the way to the North Carolina border in an ever-broadening swath encompassing 18 counties and 4 cities.

Weed served in the Green Berets in Vietnam in 1965-66, before being graduated cum laude by Yale University in 1968, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton in 1970. But in 1973, pursuing a life-long dream of being a farmer, he started the first winery in Virginia and founded a now thriving wine industry with major economic benefits for much of central Virginia. For the past 30 years, he also participated in many activities in his community, before deciding to run for Congress in 2004. Losing to Virgil Goode, Weed is challenging Goode again, benefiting from the lessons learned in 2004, and from Goode's taint of corruption because of his contacts with Jack Abramoff.

Building on his 2004 campaign, Weed has already assembled a sizeable, and dedicated, group of volunteers and staff, and is committed to making his a grass roots campaign such as the district has never seen. With deep roots in the district, and extensive experience building the local economy, Weed could pull off a major upset in a race not generally considered in danger for Republicans.

On the issues, Weed is a thorough-going progressive, from his support of universal health care and total opposition to the Iraq War, to advocating raising taxes on the super-rich and giant corporations, providing more resources to our schools, replacing free trade with fair trade and adopting policies to end our dependence on fossil fuels. He has a very well-developed set of proposals to address the endemic poverty of so many, and the general collapse of good middle class jobs, advocating single payer health insurance, craft training for those interested in becoming skilled plumbers, electricians and other trades, developing clean and renewable energy sources, and creating a New Deal-style federal jobs program, a National Community Revitalization Project, to hire people to rebuild our cities and towns, jumpstarting local economies while improving the quality of life for everyone. In education, he opposes the rigid one-size-fits-all standards of the No Child Left Behind bill and its unfunded mandates, and would work to bring a university to his district as the core of a plan to revitalize the district economically and help keep young people from all leaving for better paying jobs elsewhere.

PDA Virginia looks forward to helping Weed's campaign to the maximum of our ability, with an eye to producing a startling upset in November as part of a Democratic sweep of Congress. More information is available at his website.

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PDA Virginia Endorses Al Weed in the 5th Congressional District