Controversial columnist a longtime contractor for Goode’s campaigns

By Sarah Arkin

Published: October 10, 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign has ousted a prominent figure in Virginia GOP circles and a longtime contractor of Congressman Virgil Goode.

The McCain campaign announced this week that it was dropping Bobby May, a columnist and Republican political advertising specialist, after it discovered a racially charged editorial in a newspaper mocking a potential Barack Obama administration in the White House.

In the column, “The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama,” which originally appeared in Buchanan County’s The Voice, May mockingly lays out his opinion of what Obama’s presidential policies would be.

May writes that if elected, the Democratic candidate would hire rapper Ludacris to paint the White House black, change the national anthem to the “Black National Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson, and on the position of reparations to black communities, he writes that Obama “opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day.”

Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for McCain’s campaign, said in a written statement to the Los Angeles Times that May’s attempts at humor “are offensive and have no place in political discourse. … The McCain campaign wholeheartedly disavows Mr. May’s column.”

McCain, R-Ariz., appointed May as the chairman of his campaign in Buchanan County in July.

May has been involved with dozens of Republican campaigns throughout the state of Virginia, including former gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Goode.

Over past election cycles, Goode has spent more than $100,000 on campaign gear from May, including buttons, pins and fans. Goode’s spending report from the Federal Election Commission shows he spent $3,298 on May’s supplies this year. Goode spent $38,866 on the campaign gear in 2006 and $28,860 in 2004.

Goode, R-Rocky Mount, said he isn’t in a rush to discontinue contracts with May.

“Bobby May is not and has not been on my campaign staff,” Goode said in a written statement. “I will take a look at the controversial material and make an evaluation and judgment after I have done that.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.