Tom Perriello Keeps Moving To The Far Left

Tom Perriello Keeps Moving To The Far Left

The growing Democratic civil war means that many politicians are now deciding to move into more extreme and liberal positions. Many do this hoping to appeal to the same people who fueled Senator Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign. One politician who has already shown an inclination to do this is Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello. […]

February 9, 2017

The growing Democratic civil war means that many politicians are now deciding to move into more extreme and liberal positions. Many do this hoping to appeal to the same people who fueled Senator Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign. One politician who has already shown an inclination to do this is Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello.

Perriello has already flip-flopped on government funding of abortions, and now he’s done it on off-shore oil drilling. Yesterday, Perriello came out against off-shore oil drilling saying he’d always been “very skeptical” of it. Yet as the Washington Post uncovered, this is a flat out lie. In 2010, Perriello sponsored a bill in Congress to allow oil drilling off the coast of Virginia. Furthermore, during his 2008 Congressional campaign, Perriello was such a strong supporter of off-shore oil drilling that he called his opponent’s claim that he opposed off-shore oil drilling “libelous”:

“During his successful 2008 campaign, Perriello called on TV stations to drop ads aired by incumbent Virgil Goode (R), complaining that they included the ‘libelous’ claim that Perriello opposed off-shore drilling, according to a news account from the time, to which Whitbeck’s post also linked.”

Perriello’s dramatic move to the left has also caught the attention of many Virginia newspaper editorial boards. According to the Sun Gazette, Perriello is causing the Democratic primary to “veer sharply to the left”:

“Both Northam and Perriello appeared at a recent gathering of Northern Virginia Democrats; it’s clear Perriello is having an impact on Northam’s campaigning, as the lieutenant governor has veered sharply to the left on social issues in order to avoid being outflanked by Perriello. And that’s the biggest danger for Democrats: that they tack too far left in the primary and can’t rebalance themselves when the time comes for the general election. (The GOP faces a reverse problem: tacking too far right.)”

While the Winchester Star noted Perriello, who has also hired Sanders campaign staffers, is “really going left of late”:

“Mr. Perriello, a dedicated liberal, has been really going left of late, enlisting the aid of former Bernie Sanders staffers to work on his late-starting campaign. His goal: isolate the mild-mannered Mr. Northam from his Capitol Square political base. The drilling issue may serve this purpose.”

While many in DC are focused on the dangers of primary challengers to Senate incumbents in 2018, they’re missing one going on already in 2017. Perriello is going to drag the entire Democratic field to the far left, where only electoral oblivion is waiting.