Tom Perriello’s New TV Ad Highlights His Past While Ignoring His Flip-Flops

The Virginia Democrat gubernatorial primary’s ad war is now in full swing, with failed former congressman Tom Perriello going up with his first TV campaign ad days after his opponent Ralph Northam released ads of his own. In his ad, Perriello uses footage of former president Barack Obama campaigning with him in 2010, days before Perriello was kicked out of Congress by his constituents. While Perriello clearly believes that using his campaign appearance with Obama will attract primary votes, there’s just one problem: the Tom Perriello who ran in 2010 is not the same person as the Tom Perriello running today. Since he left Congress, Tom Perriello has abandoned the positions he adopted while representing a conservative district, flip-flopping to adopt views more in line with his far-left beliefs.

In Congress, Perriello was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and bragged often about it on the campaign trail. But now he calls them a “nut-job extremist organization,” and was defensive when pressed on the topic by Northam. Perriello also was a strong proponent of offshore drilling while in Congress, introducing legislation to support it. But since starting his gubernatorial campaign, he has reversed himself, now saying he opposes expanding offshore drilling in Virginia. On the issue of abortion, Perriello has also shifted his position, having supported the Stupak amendment to Obamacare in 2009 to prevent any funding for abortion under the law. Now Perriello calls this decision a mistake, regretting that he followed through on a promise to his constituents.

On every issue from the Second Amendment to offshore drilling to abortion funding, Tom Perriello has rewritten his past positions and recast himself as part of a phony effort to attract more left-wing primary votes. If he’s going to remind the people of Virginia that he once campaign with the president seven years ago, he should also remind them that the person who stood next to Barack Obama had polar opposite positions on issues of vital consequence to Virginians from the person he portrays himself as today.