"Tom Perriello’s faith encourages him to give 10 percent of his family’s income to the Catholic Church.

So when Perriello kicked off his bid against six-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, he decided to ask his campaign volunteers to make a similar pledge of tithing.

Each of Perriello’s 125 campaign workers must spend at least of 10 percent of their time performing community service within the 5th congressional district.

“We wanted to put our principles in action, so we needed to give our time,” said Perriello, a 33-year-old Democrat. “While it’s important to tackle the culture of corruption in Washington, it’s just as important to replace it with a culture of service.”

On Thursday, three of Perriello’s young campaign staffers helped prepare a lunch of baked chicken, pizza rolls and yams for homeless families at the Salvation Army in Charlottesville. Across town, another 10 were working on a Habitat for Humanity housing development on Paton Street. The next day, several others — including Perriello — drove from the campaign’s Charlottesville headquarters to help out at a domestic violence shelter in Bedford.

The volunteers have spent time at a soup kitchen in Rocky Mount, a senior center in Martinsville and food banks in Collinsville and Danville. Several volunteers regularly tutor children at Smith Mountain Lake. They have sought to perform service projects in nearly every corner of the congressional district, which includes Charlottesville, Bedford, Danville and Martinsville, as well as portions of the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Nelson and Greene.

“People sometimes think that politicians don’t care about the community until Election Day,” said campaign organizer Marta Cook, a University of Virginia student who was grating cheese at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. “This helps us show that isn’t the case.”

Goode’s campaign manager, Tucker Watkins, said that community service has been a cornerstone of Goode’s life, not his campaign.

Each time that Congress has voted to increase its members’ salaries, Goode has donated the extra cash to nonprofits in his district. Recipients have included local chapters of the Humane Society, the YMCA, veterans groups and others, Watkins said.

“You never see him have a press release about this, but he’s given money to hundreds of folks,” Watkins said. “It’s the true meaning of charity. It’s not a campaign thing for him. It’s a personal thing. The Bible says … that you do your charitable works quietly. You don’t advertise them.”

Perriello insists that his “tithing project” is not about generating goodwill that might translate into votes. Rather, he said, it is about showing the district that he wants to make a difference.

“It’s been wonderful,” said Perriello, who has helped found two faith-based nonprofits. “It’s restored the soul of our campaign.”

Motives notwithstanding, Perriello’s innovation may prove to be smart politics, said Paul Martin, a political professor at UVa’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

“[The idea] is good for spreading your campaign message to other people who are volunteering — people who are likely involved in political circles,” Martin said in an e-mail. “The second reason is that it might symbolize the kind of representative Perriello hopes to be — someone engaged in the community and willing to get their hands dirty to help people.”

Martin added that such an initiative can reveal the problems facing the district and might help come up with solutions to solve them. Campaign volunteers, he pointed out, often go on to serve on congressional staffs. If Perriello is elected, his volunteers would already be well trained for constituent service tasks in the district.

Martin, who formerly worked for U.S. Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis., said he has not heard of any other congressional campaigns that have asked its volunteers to make such a commitment.

For campaign worker Zach Mayo, the community service work has made him support Perriello’s candidacy even more.

“It makes you sleep better at night,” he said. “You’re not just selling your candidate. You’re also helping the community.”" (Brian McNeill, The Daily Progress, June 23, 2008)