Thanks to Al Weed for asking me to speak today and to set the stage for the great nomination to come.

I wanted a fitting title for my short remarks on this beautiful day in Nelson County.
I thought of several, for example:

"Our congressmen: The 9th has Rick, the 3rd has Bobby, the 8th has Jim, and the 5th has…..um, what's his name? The one who used to be a Democrat? Oh, yeah….Goode. Virgil Goode."

After much thought, I settled on the following: "VIRGIL FIDDLES WHILE ROME BURNS!"

It may be a country fiddle, and instead of Rome it may be Martinsville or Henry County, Danville or Halifax. But make no mistake, the image fits our current Congressman in Virginia's 5th District!

Two years ago, I stood before you and asked for your help in bringing economic relief to Virginia's beleaguered Southside.

I asked you to work to elect a new Congressperson who would stand by those thousands of dedicated and hardworking people in Virginia's 5th District who have lost their jobs and are struggling just to survive. People who have played by the rules, worked hard, raised their families to be proud Americans and are getting shortchanged by a Congressman who just doesn't get it.

Virgil Goode started out in life with every advantage. First, he was the son of Democrats. Second, he lived a comfortable life in an area rich with tobacco farming and manufacturing.

But when he went to Washington, he became the son of special interests and corporate contributions. He forgot about the farmers and factory workers in his district who were losing ground every day to global economic changes that left them without income, without livelihood, without hope.

With your help, we brought a message of hope, not despair, of unity not division, of the future not the past.

We presented a 6-point program for economic development and pledged to use our Congressional office to support and coordinate a massive effort for economic development in the 5th District.

And with your help, many listened, and many voted with us…just not enough to win Rome back from the emperor who fiddles.

So what has happened in the two years since we last met in Chatham, at the 5th District nominating convention to select our Congressional candidate?

With Mark Warner at the helm, unemployment in the Commonwealth of Virginia has steadily declined and now stands below 4% of the Virginia workforce. Median family income has risen and now stands at $46,000, while per capita income is $24,000.

Mark Warner's efforts to bring new jobs to the Southside has been a staple of hope during his administration.

But without federal aid, without a full partner in Washington, Governor Warner can't do it all.

This January, the City of Martinsville experienced the highest level of unemployment in a decade with almost 17% of its workforce unemployed. Henry County has held steady at a depression era 14% - an actual improvement from a record 17% experienced during the summer of '03.

The city of Danville and counties of Halifax, Mecklenburg, Pittsylvania and Appomattox had unemployment levels during the last year that sometimes rose to 12% and now stand at 8-9%.

Median family income in Danville - a once wealthy tobacco community - is now $20,000 below the median for Virginia, and Martinsville is close behind. Per capita income in Halifax and Brunswick counties is $10,000 less than the $24,000 personal income of all Virginians. We're talking an annual income of $14,000 in two of our 5th District counties.

My friends, these aren't statistics. These are people. They are our friends and neighbors, the kids we went to school with. They are our families!

Yet Virgil Goode - unlike his counterpart in the 9th District - has presented us with no plan for a brighter future. He gives us words but no action. He is on the House Appropriations Committee, yet we revealed in 2002 that the 5th District is dead last in federal aid among Virginia's 11 Congressional Districts. Dead last!

Last year I stood with members of the Building Trades Unions at a rally for our workers. A new power plant being constructed in Fluvanna County - the hope of many there for an economic engine for the future - was hiring nothing but out of state, itinerate laborers for the 600 construction jobs needed to build the plant.

When we wrote to Virgil for his help in persuading the power company to Hire Virginians First, he turned his back; he sided with the company. He did nothing to help the hundreds of skilled, licensed workers - many from his own district - who were turned down for jobs. One of them from Martinsville I spoke with had worked only 6 weeks in the past 2 years!

We're here today to nominate Al Weed, a candidate who has great ideas for the economic revitalization of Southside Virginia. Al has the knowledge and the will to bring a new day of prosperity to our long-suffering cities and counties.

Al knows, too, that those of us from the Northern portions of the 5th District are experiencing our own problems; problems of a different kind that dramatically affect the quality of life. Frenzied growth has brought jobs to our door, but it has also brought unwise consumption of our land and natural resources. Wages have not caught up with the cost of living. Many people who work full time continue to live in poverty.

I'm proud that in 1999, Charlottesville was one of a handful of cities in Virginia that adopted a living minimum wage of $8 for all city employees and contract workers, raised to $9 this year. Now, anyone who works for the city earns a minimum of $9/ hr.

I know that Al Weed supports living wages for all Virginians. Al Weed will help our Northern counties in the 5th District gain equity for people at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder- those people who work two or three jobs to feed, clothe and house their families.

Two years ago, when I was traveling around the district, a tobacco farmer approached me at Kathy's Kitchen in Buena Vista and asked, "Can you save this dying town?"

Perhaps Al Weed will encounter the same farmer, or one of his counterparts, who will ask the same question. A farmer himself, Al will be able to talk his language.

And as a Congressman, Al Weed will work to bring jobs and prosperity to all of the people in the 5th District who aren't getting their fair share in today's economy.

He won't fiddle around. He won't let our cites and counties down.

Let's redouble our efforts to bring our District back from the depression. We can do it. We can elect Al Weed to Congress.

Meredith Richards, May 8, 2004