Gabe Cavallaro

gcavallaro@newsleader.com

While Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th, made it into the national headlines this week for being the architect of a plan that would have gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics before it fizzled under significant backlash, the people of the Valley know him well.

He's been representing Virginia's 6th Congressional district for a long time — 23 years and counting now after he was elected to his 13th term in November, blowing past the six-term limit he placed on himself when he originally ran for the seat in 1992.

He said he continues to run because he feels his constituents will continue to benefit from his presence in Congress in an interview prior to November's election.

"If only the people who believed in term limits kept term limits, then the people who don't support term limits would have all the seniority and all of the power in the Congress," he said. "If you're in a position to move legislation that is of importance to your constituents, that's an important and valuable thing for them."

After he was first elected, Goodlatte read every letter that came into his office, and signed every one mailed out, said Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, who worked as a Goodlatte aide for eight years after graduating from college before being elected to Virginia's General Assembly.

"He was never satisfied with just a short response," Cline said back in 2015. "He wanted to give the constituents as much information and background as he could, on not only the issue being talked about, but how he arrived at his position."

He grew a reputation for having a personal touch in helping his constituents, which translated to bipartisan support.

"You help someone or their father with Social Security; you help someone's relative with their VA (Veterans Affairs) benefits — whether you're Democrat or Republican, you remember that," said Bob Denton, a Virginia Tech political analyst, when interviewed for a 2015 Goodlatte profile.

But Goodlatte has recently come under fire for being out-of-touch with these same constituents after having been in Washington so long, a campaign point of his Republican Primary opponent Harry Griego this year as well as his General Election Democratic challenger Kai Degner.

"A lot of voters in the 6th District are fed up with the leadership that is coming out of Washington," Griego said in May. "The current leadership has ignored conservative, constitutionally minded people."

Degner similarly made the claim about Goodlatte being out-of-touch throughout his campaign this year, which resonated with some 6th District voters like Misty Vickers, a mother and social worker who drove up from Roanoke with her 17-month-old daughter to attend the candidates' only debate at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg in October.

"He is the system and we need to change the system," she said after watching the two candidates face off.

Lack of accessibility to constituents is tied into agreeing to debate on the issues too, as Degner argued in claiming Goodlatte ignored his initial debate requests. This was also a point Staunton City Councilman James Harrington echoed while attending a Degner campaign event in Staunton back in September.

“He owes it to his constituents,” he said. “He needs to answer questions and engage with the issues.”

On the issues, Goodlatte has been called a "policy wonk" and fought for stronger immigration background checks, stricter adherence to assessing sales tax on online purchases as well as for stronger intellectual property rights.

He's also advocated for improving police-community relations around the country, while he's opposed restoring federal oversight of states with histories of discriminating against minority voters, which spurred an NAACP-led sit-in at his district office in Roanoke in August.

And in 2009 he supported legislation that would have required presidential candidates to provide their birth certificates as part of the required documentation to officially become a candidate.

Through the 2016 presidential race, Goodlatte was a proponent of charging Hillary Clinton with perjury over her sworn testimony before the Benghazi panel in October 2015, while holding fast in support of President-elect Donald Trump when many other Republicans withdrew support.

When asked about Trump's "rigged election" comments throughout the campaign season — if he believed it would be an honest and fair election or if the system is rigged — Goodlatte replied, "there's no way to know for sure, you have to continue to constantly work to make sure that our election laws are fair and so we do," in an October interview.

He cited the Virginia Department of Elections's changes to voting machines over worries that they did not leave a paper trail as a reason for his concern, saying they were "subject to abuse," and argued the article in which his response to this question was reported was "misleading" in a News Leader letter to the editor.

During this same 2016 congressional race, Goodlatte maintained voter support despite Degner pointing out that his wife, Maryellen Goodlatte, stands to profit from the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, set to run through Virginia south of Roanoke. This project has received opposition from private landowners arguing that a private company has no right to use eminent domain as a reason to be able to build a pipeline through a landowner's property.

Maryellen Goodlatte is on the board of directors of RGC Resources, a subsidiary of which is a partner on the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project. She reports she has between $250,000 and $500,000 in stock invested with the company, the biggest investment in Goodlatte's combined portfolio with her, as reported in his 2015 personal financial disclosure filing from May 2016.

When Degner brought this fact up during their Lynchburg debate, Goodlatte denied that he profits from the project, saying, "the stock is owned by my wife," to which the crowd's laughter interrupted him from continuing his defense further.

"Mr. Goodlatte is making a bet that [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] will approve the pipeline, and that concerned citizen groups, scientifically based environmental concerns, and land-rights advocates will not be able to stop this project," Degner said in September. "How can he protect our land and environment if he can profit from this $3.2 billion proposed project?”

Enter 2017 and the nixed plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, led by Goodlatte, which Degner said to him represents another example of the congressman "being out of touch with Americans - the difference is this one got into the headlines."

"If he was hoping to engender trust, he failed," Degner said. "Closed door, surprise legislating like this is always dangerous, but it's offensive when connected to ethics reform."

Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that while there are legitimate criticisms of the ethics office, Goodlatte's proposed changes would have likely weakened its oversight capabilities and independence, leaving the office charged with investigating ethics under the control of the very members it investigates — with the ability to halt an investigation at any time.

As for Goodlatte's campaign finance data for the 2016 election cycle, key data points are listed below, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In-state vs. out-of-state campaign contributions:

In-state, 66%

Out-of-state, 34%

In-district vs. out-of-district campaign contributions:

In-district, 33%

Out-of-district, 67%

Top 10 campaign-contributing zip codes:

24018 (Roanoke, Va.), $48,000 24014 (Roanoke, Va.), $31,1750 24503 (Lynchburg, Va.), $29,400 24153 (Salem, Va.), $23,250 22801 (Harrisonburg, Va.), $22,250 24019 (Roanoke, Va.), $17,100 22101 (McLean, Va.), $15,400 22802 (Harrisonburg, Va.), $12,400 23061 (Gloucester, Va.), $10,800 22207 (Arlington, Va.), $9,900

Top 10 campaign contributors (by total dollar amount):

Comcast Corp, $20,750 Alphabet Inc, $18,100 Facebook Inc, $15,400 Citigroup Inc, $15,000 National Assn of Broadcasters, $13,450 Norfolk Southern, $11,000 Deloitte LLP, $10,839 Allegiancy, $10,800 AT&T Inc, $10,500 Berkshire Hathaway, $10,200

Top 10 campaign-contributing industries (by total dollar amount):

Lawyers/law firms, $109,258 Retired, $95,325 TV/Movies/Music, $85,133 Electronics Mfg & Equip, $78,800 Telecom Services, $74,500 Securities & Investment, $65,500 Commercial Banks, $56,500 Lobbyists, $56,250 Internet, $54,750 Real Estate, $54,550

Top 10 campaign expenditure recipients (by total dollar amount):