Could a third-party candidate keep Mitt out of the White House? Meet the Constitution Party nominee who could stop Mitt from winning Virginia

As the race for the White House gets ever tighter, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are competing fiercely in the key swing states that will decide next month's election.



One crucial battleground for Mr Romney in particular is Virginia - the Republican is very unlikely to win the presidency without taking the traditionally conservative Southern state.



But Mr Obama is not the only opponent he has to contend with in the state, as Virgil Goode, the Constitution Party candidate, could just about steal enough votes from Mr Romney to deny him victory in Virginia - and perhaps in the election as a whole.

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Challenge: Virgil Goode could dent Mitt Romney's performance in the key swing state of Virginia

Maverick: The candidate has been a Democrat, an independent and a Republican before joining the Constitution Party and becoming its presidential nominee

Mr Goode represented the state in Congress for 12 years, first as a Democrat, then as an independent and finally as a Republican.



Now he is on the ballot for the Constitution Party in 29 states - and his former colleagues in the GOP fear he could destroy the Republicans' chances of victory in November.

'You could singlehandedly make Obama win the national election this fall, even though Mitt Romney stands for many of same things that you have said you support,' said 17-year-old Mitchell Swann, president of the Young Republicans Club at E.C. Glass High School, after Mr Goode spoke there.



Recent polls show Mr Obama slightly ahead of Mr Romney in head-to-head polls for Virginia's 13 electoral college votes, by four to eight percentage points.



Only one, a Washington Post poll of 934 registered Virginia voters conducted last month, included Mr Goode, and he was the choice of two per cent.



Campaign trail: Mr Goode, pictured in a Lynchburg barber shop, is a familiar face in much of Virginia

Short-staffed: Mr Goode has one full-time aide and has raised just $15,000 in campaign funds

'He's still a household name in some parts of Virginia,' said Mark Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.



'Unlike other candidates, Virgil Goode has the potential to siphon off a sizeable number of votes regionally.'



Mr Rozell said that if it comes down to Virginia in a very close election, Mr Goode could draw one to two per cent of the vote to become this year's Ralph Nader.



Many Democrats consider Mr Nader, a consumer activist and 2000 Green Party presidential candidate, a spoiler who cost Al Gore the election. He drew about 100,000 votes that year in Florida's razor-thin contest, which went to George W. Bush.



Mr Goode hears the comparison from Republicans in all 29 states where he is on the ballot, but particularly in Virginia.



They urge him to quit. They hire A-list law firms to present alleged improprieties to state election boards and strip him from the ballot – a maneuvre that succeeded in Pennsylvania but failed in Virginia.



Personal: The candidate's retail politics could cost Mitt Romney his shot at the White House

Local: Mr Goode outside his campaign headquarters in the town of Rocky Mount

'A vote for Virgil Goode is a vote for Barack Obama, and I think people are smart enough to know that,' said Pat Mullins, Virginia's GOP chairman since 2009.



On Mr Mullins' watch, Republicans have roared back from 2008's dispiriting defeats, including Mr Goode's ouster from Congress and the first Democratic presidential victory in Virginia since 1964.



Republican Governor Bob McDonnell has denied that Mr Goode will be a factor in Virginia's presidential contest.



Mr Goode, a lanky, 65-year-old country lawyer, has one full-time campaign staffer and three part-timers. His motorcade is his cluttered Honda Accord, which he drives himself.



He raises his own funds, and professes surprise at the GOP reaction to a rival of such meagre means. Through August, Goode had raised $15,000, added $40,000 of his own and had $8,430 on hand, according to his most recent Federal Election Commission filing.



'The Republicans in different states have just overreacted,' said Mr Goode, who has changed party labels four times since he was elected to Congress in 1996.



'I think I will get even more votes from disgruntled Democrats or people who were going to stay home and not vote because there's no choice,' he added. He claims he is the only candidate running without big-money backing.



Challenge: Mr Romney almost cannot become President without winning Virginia's electoral votes

Beneficiary? Mr Obama has been fighting hard to keep his hold on the conservative Southern state

Democrats remember Mr Goode's contrarian streak. His turning point with them came in 1998 when he voted with House Republicans to impeach President Bill Clinton. He was re-elected in 2000 as an independent endorsed by the GOP.



He joined the GOP in 2002, and by 2008, Republicans had experienced Mr Goode's rebelliousness when he opposed a $700billion financial rescue program in defiance of George W. Bush's White House and the House GOP Conference.



He lost re-election to Democrat Tom Perriello by 745 votes, or less than 0.25 per cent of the 316,862 ballots cast, in the Obama-led 2008 Democratic tsunami.



Many Virginians, when they meet Mr Goode, think he is campaigning to regain his old House seat.



That's what Doug Baldock, a retired truck driver from Madison Heights, assumed when Mr Goode breezed into The Right Barber Shop on Main Street in Lynchburg where the regulars were talking sports and politics.



Mr Baldock's eyes widened when he was told Mr Goode was running for President, and he took a second look at the campaign brochure Mr Goode had handed him.



'Well he sure is,' Mr Baldock said. 'Good. I've been looking for a way not to vote for either Obama or Romney.'