Mike Webb is running for Virginia’s 8th District but has run into a bit of trouble. First, he ran for the Republican nomination but lost. He then ran as an independent but people noticed something a bit odd on this website. A screenshot showed open tabs to what appears to porn sites on his campaign Facebook site. I checked and it was still on the site after various sites reported the sighting. Whatever “Ivone” and “Layla Rivera” are offering, it is not the usual fare for campaign promises. Update: Webb has responded as discussed below.

Layla Rivera is, I am informed by Gawker (really), is a porn star. While both professions offer to “press the flesh,” they have distinctly different meanings.

Webb responded rather belatedly with an explanation that is rather hard to follow. In his posting, he is quoted in the Irish Times as posting a statement 

“Curious by nature, I wanted to test the suggestion that somehow, lurking out in the pornographic world there is some evil operator waiting for the one in a gazillion chance that a candidate for federal office would go to that particular website and thereby be infected with a virus that would cause his or her FEC [federal election commission] data file to crash the FEC file application each time that it was loaded on the day of the filing deadline, as well as impact other critical campaign systems.”

I went to the website and did not find that particular statement but did find a reference to Psalm 100.5 and this:

Lessons affirmed today include that we do expect our leaders to be examples of our highest ideals, but also, as we have seen for almost a year in non-traditional length posts, people are interested and motivated by truth and substance, not flash or even scandal. In the month preceding the nomination convention, our following on Twitter grew at a rate of 50%, but today, in just one day on Facebook, we grew in page likes by 25%. Perhaps, what does not kill you does make you stronger. And, that quote that has remained with me since the very beginning of this quest tells me that I have much work ahead to fulfill the faith placed in me: “My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence that ordereth all things for our good.”

Webb’s campaign site contains a bio as a “conservative” and son of “the son of the first African American State Chaplain for the New Jersey National Guard.” It also lists his favorite book as the Holy Bible and describes himself as “Baptist Sinner Saved By Grace.”

It is not clear who Layla Rivera is supporting in the election, but she has appears to emphasize that she is entirely apolitical and available.