"Fifth District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. said Tuesday that he is officially a Republican now that he has filed the necessary signatures for re-election in a GOP primary.

Goode, a congressman first elected in 1996 as a Democrat, became a Republican-leaning independent two years ago and made the full switch to the GOP official last week.

He visited Martha Jefferson Hospital to tour its laboratories Tuesday and later said that he will campaign no differently this year as a Republican than he has in the past.

'I'll still campaign just like I always did.' said Goode, who faces no opponent for the Republican Party nomination but will face a Democrat in the Nov. 5 election.

George D. Shropshire, 50, a Campbell County trucker, announced April 3 that he is seeking the Democratic Party nomination. Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D- Charlottesville, warmly endorsed Shropshire.

Goode, 55, said he has never met Shropshire.

Goode said he is 'not making any comment on the criminal charges that were lodged last week against Edmund A. Matricardi III, former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Matricardi resigned eight days ago after a Richmond grand jury indicted him on four felony counts related to eavesdropping on Democrats' conference calls involving elected officials and their attorneys in a redistricting lawsuit.

Goode responded to questions about eavesdropping by saying, 'I don't think it's appropriate. As a general principle, eavesdropping is inappropriate and it's criminal. In Virginia, it's a felony.'

Goode said he favors the $1,000 individual education tax credit proposed by 7th District Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-Henrico County.

'I like it. I think it gives a focus to education that we need,' said Goode, a 1973 University of Virginia law school graduate who served 23 years in the Virginia Senate as a Democrat before going to Congress" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, April 17, 2002).