Breaking! Perriello attacks Hurt as illegal anchor baby

Wow, I don't see how Hurt can recover from this devastating article that just ran in the Danville Register & Bee. Political reporter Catherine Amos was in a rush to get this out, so it's not posted online yet. I've typed up the print version. It's a must read!

Perriello attacks Hurt as illegal anchor baby

Democrat Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, attacked his Republican opponent Robert Hurt for being the child of illegal immigrants - but there is confusion as to where exactly Hurt was born.

Perriello's campaign manager, Lise Clavel, said she was told Thursday that Hurt's real biological parents were illegal immigrants from Mexico - a small village in Chiapas to be precise - and they had smuggled across the border into America shortly before Hurt's mother gave birth. Being born on American soil is sufficient for citizenship under the 14th Amendment, but opponents of illegal immigration propose changing this birthright citizenship. Lise said she was told Hurt was an illegal anchor baby by "anonymous sources," which led Perriello to release the following statement.

"It's disappointing that during these tough times, Robert Hurt would take a job away from a real native born American. The 5th District needs Americans running for office, not the child of illegal immigrants from Mexico."

Rather than praising his opposition to illegal immigrants taking jobs from American politicians, Danville Tea Party vice chairman, Darriel Burnett, saw Perriello's attack as pandering to 5th District conservatives.

"It's all too convenient that his opponent happens to be the love child of illegal immigrants," Burnett said. "If we were really opposed to illegal immigrant, he would have voted against the tax bill -- cap and trade -- and he would have voted against the stimulus. Why did Perriello allow an anchor baby to even be his opponent? He should have stopped this from happening. His failure to prevent Hurt from running shows why Perriello has to be defeated--by Hurt. As far as I'm concerned, it's a little too late, and a little too little."

However, according to the online resource "The Google," Hurt's biography does not mention his Mexican heritage. Hurt, who now lives in Pittsylvania County, is the father of three.

Sean "P. Diddy" Harrison, Hurt's campaign manager, said Hurt had never been the child of illegal immigrants to Mexico, but that the candidate's location of birth was deliberately confusing.

"Talk about cynical political stunts," Harrison said in a statement. "Tom Perriello is clearly misrepresenting the situation. There is only one candidate in this race who has consistently been accused of being from outside of the district: Tom Perriello. Even though he was born and raised in the district, we're going to send him back to New York this November. Which is actually where Robert was born. But that's not the point."

Harrison added that he had to finish the e-mail before Chris LaCivita found out he was sending out a statement without his permission.

Hurt's parents, who would know if they are illegal immigrants from Chiapas, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Stay tuned for how this will shake up the campaign . . .