Talk radio personality and darling of the right Laura Ingraham has a message to deliver in the intra-party feud in Virginia’s fifth district: Republicans can’t defeat Rep. Tom Perriello with a “middle of the road” candidate.
“Republicans on Capitol Hill still haven’t gotten it through their heads,” Ingraham said on a recent show before introducing her guest, Republican candidate Laurence Verga.
In the Dec. 7 interview the radio host called Verga “the man who is the conservative in this important primary.”
TPMDC told you this month there are seven contenders vying for the nomination to challenge the embattled freshman Democrat.
But the favorite is state Sen. Robert Hurt, who has been derided by conservative tea party types because he supported a $1.4 billion tax increase under then-Gov. Mark Warner (D) in 2004.
On her show, Ingraham blasted Hurt as “hand-selected” by the National Republican Congressional Committee – which won’t make an official endorsement – and asked them to think conservative.
“Who is the best person to defeat a Democrat in the state of Virginia? It is someone who is middle of the road … [who will] work with the Democrats … get some compromise …
or is it a conservative?” Ingraham asked.
Verga’s campaign posted a mashup of the audio on his YouTube page, spliced together with scenes of the two candidates speaking at a Virginia event and his own quote, “Laura Ingraham considers me the conservative front runner for this race because I am a fighter.”
Late Update: After we posted it, the video has been removed. If you have a copy, let us know.
From our transcript, the video showed both Verga and Hurt, with Verga going after Perriello. Hurt said he looks forward to convincing party members that he is the best candidate to beat the Democrat.
“I’m very proud of my conservative record,” Hurt says after Verga complains about his tax vote.
The radio show transcript here.
Later Update: Turns out the video was only down thanks to a technical glitch.
Here it is:
