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How many times have the Democrats begun their national convention on July 4?

Democrats rarely have bothered to put up much of a fight to unseat Virgil H. Goode Jr. , the Republican — and former conservative Democrat — who is in his sixth term representing south-central Virginia’s 5th District . But this year is different. The emergence of Tom Perriello as a vigorous and well-funded Democratic challenger has prompted CQ Politics to change its rating on the race to reflect the possibility of a competitive contest this fall.

The rating, which was Safe Republican, is now Republican Favored. This means Goode still is considered likely to win re-election in the 5th, a sprawling area that stretches from just north of Charlottesville to the state’s border with North Carolina. But it also means that the contest is at least mildly competitive at the moment.

Perriello will run well in the precincts in and near Charlottesville, which includes the liberal academic community surrounding the University of Virginia. But the rest of Virginia’s 5th is very conservative, particularly in Bedford and Campbell counties near Roanoke and Lynchburg and also in Pittsylvania County outside of the independent city of Danville. President Bush took 56 percent of the overall district vote in the 2004 election.

Goode’s political career reflects the conservative-leaning sentiments of his region. He served for 24 years in the state Senate and won U.S. House races in 1996 and 1998 as a Democrat, but was elected as an independent in 2000 and then as a Republican in his three elections since.

But the political environment, which looks favorable for Democrats nationwide, is raising Virginia Democrats’ hopes of building upon the roll they have been on over the course of this decade, which includes wins by party nominees Mark Warner in 2001 and Tim Kaine in 2005 for governor and Jim Webb for U.S. Senate in 2006. Kaine finished narrowly ahead in the 5th District vote for governor in 2005. Perriello said that his decision to run for Congress was influenced in part by Webb’s upset statewide victory in 2006 over Republican Sen. George Allen, though Webb lost the 5th by 9 percentage points.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, is competing for Virginia’s 13 electoral votes, even though state voters went Republican in each of the past 10 White House contests. Warner, who was highly popular when he left office as governor in 2006, is a heavy favorite in this year’s election to succeed retiring five-term Republican Sen. John W. Warner (no relation).

Then there is Democrats’ decision to put up first-time candidate Perriello as their challenger to Goode. Perriello, who holds a law degree from Yale University, has worked for international nonprofit organizations and founded faith-based groups, is probably the strongest candidate ever to oppose Goode and is certainly the best-funded. Perriello announced Tuesday that he had raised more than $900,000 through the end of June, compared to the just more than $600,000 that 2006 Democratic challenger Al Weed raised over the entirety of his campaign.

The congressman himself has acknowledged that this campaign will be his toughest in a career in which he has won all six of his races with at least 59 percent of the vote. His low water mark came two years ago against Weed, a military veteran and former World Bank employee.

During an interview with CQ Politics in Washington, D.C., Perriello portrayed a 5th District electorate that is very frustrated with what they see as partisanship and inaction in the nation’s capital.

Like Kaine, who once served as a Catholic missionary in Central America, Perriello’s faith informs his public policy positions. Perriello said that his campaign is striving to “do things a little differently,” including the use of a “volunteer tithing” project under which the campaign donates 10 percent of its volunteer time to perform community service, such as assisting domestic violence shelters and the Habitat for Humanity that builds housing for underprivileged people.

“Part of why we’re doing that it to make sure we’re hearing from those who are struggling. But also to say it’s not just that we’re fighting the corruption in Washington that people are so sick and tired of, but we’re actually for something too, which is a culture of service, really restoring the Greatest Generation’s sense of service to country and service to community,” Perriello said, referring to the label applied by newsman and author Tom Brokaw to those Americans who carried the nation through the dark days of the Great Depression and World War II.

Perriello said he would push in Congress for greater workforce development, including recruiting new public school teachers and providing more opportunities for vocational training to help lower-income workers earn better incomes. On Iraq, Perriello is a signatory to a proposal, described by its supporters as “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq,” that declares in part that the conflict can only be resolved diplomatically and politically and not militarily.

On other issues, Perriello was a supporter of Webb’s bill to provide more “GI Bill” education benefits for military veterans who have served since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Webb’s program was rolled into a spending bill funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that Congress cleared last week and which Bush signed Monday.

Perriello on June 5 criticized Goode’s vote on May 15 against a version of the supplemental war spending legislation, supported by 224 Democrats and 32 Republicans, that also included the GI Bill expansions. Goode said he opposed the bill because it included “extraneous burdens on American taxpayers” — a reference to a provision that would have imposed a surtax on some upper-income taxpayers — and nearly $10 billion in State Department, USAID and international food assistance.

Goode was among the 416-member super-majority that backed a compromise supplemental war spending bill that the House passed on June 19. It included the GI Bill expansion but excluded the tax increase.

There is at least one issue on which Goode and Perriello have some agreement — a Supreme Court decision June 26 that nullified a local handgun ban in Washington D.C., and declared for the first time that the Second Amendment includes an individual right to bear arms. Goode has long been a champion of gun owners’ rights, and Perriello issued a statement applauding the decision.

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