TAMPA, Fla.???Former Rep. Virgil Goode recently turned in more than twice the signatures required to be on the ballot in his homestate of Virginia as the presidential nominee of the conservative Constitution Party, and more than a few Republicans are nervous. They fear that Goode - who was elected to Congress as a Democrat, Independent, and Republican from 1996-2008 - could draw enough votes from Mitt Romney to tip the Old Dominion???s 14 electoral votes to President Barack Obama.
Not so, says Virginia???s top Republican. In an interview with Human Events at the Tampa convention center, Gov. Bob McDonnell said that ???Virgil just doesn???t have the resources or the traction to be a formidable candidate. And Virginia voters historically have never been atttacted to third party candidates.???
When we mentioned a recent PPP poll showing Goode drawing 9 percent of the vote in Virginia, McDonnell scoffed and said: ???You mean that Democratic poll that is almost always way off????
In dismissing the chances of Goode to be a factor in his state, the governor refused to say a critical word about his onetime state senate colleague and, in fact, praised the former congressman as ???a principled guy.???
