FairTax advocate runs against Perriello

LYNCHBURG — Bradley S. Rees, 31, isn’t exactly a typical GOP candidate for Congress.

Rees works in a Lynchburg manufacturing facility, where he assembles valve actuators for pipelines. His campaign theme song is called “Bulldozer” by thrash metal band Machine Head. He has tattoos across his fist. And he doesn’t much care about such social issues as gay marriage or abortion.

“I’m an unknown,” Rees acknowledges, sitting at a table at the Big Lick Tropical Grill in Lynchburg, after getting off work from the nearby Flowserve factory. “I’m from completely outside of politics.”

Rees is the first of a possible dozen Republican candidates vying for their party’s nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, in next year’s mid-term congressional election.

Last Monday, former congressman Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Republican from Rocky Mount, announced that he would not seek a re-match against Perriello.

Door wide open

Goode’s announcement opens the doors for Republicans throughout the 5th Congressional District — which stretches from the Charlottesville region to Danville and Martinsville — to take on Perriello in what is likely to be one of the nation’s closest-watched races in 2010.

Rees, who lives in Bedford County with his wife and two children, had never before considered running for office, but was a longtime advocate of the “FairTax,” which would essentially eliminate federal income taxes and replace them with a 23 percent national sales tax.

Rees decided to run for Congress late last year, he said, after Perriello ran a campaign ad that Rees believes unfairly criticized Goode’s support of the FairTax. In the ad, Perriello does not mention that the FairTax idea calls for eliminating federal income taxes, instead saying only that it would increase the sales tax. “His plan would add a 23 percent tax on almost everything you buy,” Perriello says in the ad. “That might work for a millionaire like Goode, but not for the middle class.”

Rees believes Goode ultimately lost to Perriello in part because the six-term incumbent Republican did not make the FairTax a signature issue during the campaign.

“He was all caught up with illegal immigration, gay marriage and abortion and things like that,” Rees said.

If Rees is elected, he said, he would be much more focused on getting the FairTax measure passed.

“One of the main problems the FairTax has in Congress right now is that there’s not enough salesmen for the issue,” he said.

Glenn Beck fan

Rees, who carries Glenn Beck’s “Common Sense” and a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution with him, is not just a single-issue candidate. His platform also aims to reduce the influence of lobbyists in Washington and calls for creation of a national commission of “economists, businessmen and experts on constitutional law and public policy to identify areas in which the federal government has run afoul of the 10th Amendment.”

Rees also believes it is important to reduce the number of lawyers serving in Congress. Point No. 6 of his platform is titled: The Lawyer vs. The Common Man. “What is a criminal lawyer? Redundant.

That is one of the many jokes about lawyers that we chuckle over on a regular basis in this country,” his platform says. “There can be no doubt that many of the problems this nation faces stem from our over-litigiousness as a society.”

Rees said he has nothing against lawyers, but believes “common” people like him are needed in office to implement tort reform and reduce government regulation.

“This is a common guy,” said Rees’ campaign manager, Michael Ernette. “That’s what we need. We need common sense.”

Winning the GOP nomination to challenge Perriello will almost certainly be an uphill battle for Rees’ campaign, Republican officials say. Rees lacks name recognition and, unlike some of the other possible candidates, he has not proven that he can win an election.

Yet Ernette thinks Rees might be able to tap into the coalition of conservatives who are attending Taxed Enough Already — or TEA — Parties in the 5th District. Rees has spoken at TEA Parties in Charlottesville and Danville.

“That’s where the coalition is going to come from,” Ernette said.

Ernette added that the Rees campaign echoes gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s famous (albeit unsuccessful) campaign to become sheriff of Aspen, Colo., in 1970.

‘Gonzo campaign’

“We are the gonzo campaign,” Ernette said. “Gonzo grassroots.”

As the campaign rolls on, Rees said, he intends to treat Perriello fairly.

One of the first actions of Rees’ campaign was to issue a statement praising Perriello’s decision to introduce legislation in support of the D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

And on a Wednesday appearance on “The Rob Schilling Show” on WINA-AM 1070, Rees defended Perriello somewhat after Schilling criticized Perriello for missing 49 out of 658 votes so far in Congress. Rees pointed out that Perriello’s father died and that was why his missed so many votes during a one-and-a-half-week period in the spring.

Schilling disagreed. “People deal with loss all the time,” the host said, “but they still have a responsibility.”

Schilling, a former Charlottesville city councilor, went on to praise Rees’ “common sense approach.”

Chris Schoenewald, chairman of the Albemarle County GOP, said he expects numerous Republicans will announce their intentions to run for the nomination in the coming weeks.

Schoenewald said he supports a convention to select his party’s nominee, possibly next May.

Schoenewald declined to comment on Rees’ shot at winning, but noted that the TEA Party supporters are a rising force in the district.

“The TEA Party movement is certainly a force to be reckoned with,” he said, adding that the movement is bringing together Republicans, some Democrats, members of the Constitution Party, Libertarians and many others.