WSLS profiles Sam Rasoul
It’s a mad dash for Sam Rasoul, a first time candidate who his underfunded and fighting to get his name out.
“This is actually how I get my exercise,” Rasoul said on a hot August day as he literally ran from house to house, knocking on doors.
You could call it dropping pounds while gaining votes. Rasoul does it almost every day in an effort to introduce himself to the voters and discuss some of his policy positions. One of his big issues is lobbyists.
“We also want to get these lobbyists and special interests out of there,” he told several people the day we followed him around.
It’s a phrase he uses over and over, no matter the setting, part of a campaign even he would describe as idealistic. We caught up with Rasoul at Roanoke College, his alma mater.
WARREN: “WHAT DOES THIS CAMPUS MEAN TO YOU?”
RASOUL: “This campus to me means ingenuity, youth, new ideas.”
WARREN: “IT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR CAMPAIGN SLOGAN.”
RASOUL: “Yeah. It should be. It really is.” He went on to say, “We’ve got to be reaching for the stars.”
Rasoul likely learned that from one of his elementary school teachers, Marilyn Harmon.
Harmon said, “When Sam came to me, Sam informed me that he was special. I told him all kids are special. He meant special in ability or special ed.”
It didn’t take long for young Sam to turn that around. In a year he was in gifted and talented with Harmon advising, “If you aim, aim high.”
Rasoul evidently took that to heart. The 27-year-old, who runs sever small businesses including a gym and tanning salon, is now trying to break into politics and he’s starting near the top: Congress.
WARREN: “WHY NOT START AT THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND WORK YOUR WAY UP?”
RASOUL: “You know, I looked at how I could be involved in local politics and then realized that our representative hadn’t been challenged in so long, that if no one else was going to step up, then that was where my calling was.”
It’s a calling that started a full two years before the election and has seen its fill of controversy from staffing to signs. I’m sure you’ve seen his yard signs. They’ve been out for years. So long, Botetourt County officials said it violated their sign ordinance.
One more controversy: just what party does Rasoul belong to?
“I grew up as a Republican,” he said.
After college, Rasoul says he became an independent and then shifted to the Democratic Party. But, there’s no record of that including who he voted for in the 2005 statewide primaries.
RASOUL: “I don’t really recall. If I voted, I try to vote every chance I get, but I don’t recall who I voted for then.”
WARREN: “IN 2004, GEORGE BUSH OR JOHN KERRY?”
RASOUL: ”I voted for Ralph Nader.”
WARREN: “IN 2004?”
RASOUL: “In 2004 and in 2000.”
Rasoul says it’s not as much about party as getting things done and he patterns his political persona around former Gov. Mark Warner. He has even picked up some of Warner’s business message saying things like, “It’s very simple, can you balance the books, money coming in and out.”
And, if he’s elected to Congress the money coming into his house will be less than his colleagues, as he has made an unusual pledge: half of his congressional salary will go to local charities.
“I can live off of half of 170K just fine. Most of America is doing it with far less. I think I can do it,” he said.
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