"Democratic congressional hopeful Bern Ewert of Charlottesville is aggressively courting delegates committed to fellow Democrat Al Weed of Nelson County weeks after Weed claimed a majority of 196 party activists planning to attend Saturday's nominating convention.

Saturday's gathering at Buckingham County High School will nominate an opponent for 5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Weed claims the allegiance of 106 delegates selected to the convention to 55 for Ewert and another 35 officially uncommitted, with some in the final category leaning toward one Democrat or the other.

Fred Hudson, a Free Union Democrat who chairs the 5th District party, said he knows of no shifts from those numbers.

"I personally feel that the pledge that they signed with the caucus is a meaningful declaration" of their support for a particular candidate, Hudson said. "There is no rule [about switching in a secret ballot]. On the other hand, the pledges were signed. It's a moral thing."

Weed's lead among pledged delegates has not stopped Ewert from sending three letters pounding at the front-runner and attempting to convert his delegates with claims that the Nelson County vintner cannot beat Goode, who handily turned back Weed's challenge two years ago.

"I think it's close," Ewert said Monday. Asked how many delegates now support him, Ewert replied, "I'm not saying."

Ewert also declined to say if any of Weed's 106 delegates have switched to him, adding, "I think we have a real shot" at winning the nomination.

Former Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, a Charlottesville Democrat supporting Ewert, said Monday that he disagrees with Ewert's tactics of going after Weed's committed delegates.

"Some people feel that even though it's legal to do it, it's unethical," Van Yahres said.

"I have reservations about soliciting committed delegates to start out with," Van Yahres said. He said he told Ewert that and "he understands my position."

Ewert's latest letter to convention delegates stated that because Weed uses immigrant labor at his Mountain Cove Vineyards, Goode would use immigration as a wedge issue to divide Democrats.

"What we don't know is how vulnerable Al Weed is on this issue," Ewert's campaign mailing said. "If Al Weed is part of the problem on immigration, it will weaken his support among Democrats and will drive voter turnout down!"

Ewert was asked if he had any knowledge of Weed ever using undocumented immigrants, which Weed said he had never done. "I have no way of knowing one way or the other," Ewert replied.

Ewert declined to say if there was an implication that Weed used illegal immigrants, responding, "I think the piece speaks for itself."

"He doesn't understand what seasonal labor is all about," Weed said of Ewert, a former Roanoke city manager and Prince William County executive. "He implies I'm using illegal immigrants." Weed said he pays his legal seasonal immigrant laborers $8.25 an hour at the vineyard.

"We're trying to figure out how to respond without getting in the gutter," Weed said. "He is trying to persuade the committed delegates that their pledge does not have to be valid."

Virginia Germino, one of Weed's 12 delegates from Charlottesville, said a mailing she received from Ewert "was kind of sleazy" by partially quoting Hudson as saying only that, "There is no rule preventing delegates from changing their minds" without adding that the party chairman considers the signed pledge a moral obligation.

"There's nothing higher than a moral obligation," Germino said.

"It's really angered me," she said of Ewert's tactics. "I think he's trying to tar Al Weed without any evidence he deserves to be tarred... It's a divisive technique that Republicans just love. This guy has lost. He ought to go gracefully."" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, May 16, 2006)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.