Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220298
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Faced with a slow election year, leaders in the state Democratic and Republican parties have started trading barbs in letters and threatening to "debate" in hopes of exposing each other's blunders.
Democratic Party chairman Paul Goldman, has asked for an opportunity to chide Republicans for "the unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility of the Virginia Republican Party," before the GOP's ruling committee.
Republican Executive Director Joe Elton charges that Goldman's aim is to shift attention from the conflict between Gov. Douglas Wilder's call for divestment of South African assets and his refusal to comment on the all-male admissions policy at Virginia Military Institute. That inconsistency has brought Wilder criticism, and his divestment policy has brought warnings from a senior legislative Democrat that it could damage the state's pension fund.
The odd battle in political rhetoric began Friday, when Goldman sent a letter to GOP chairman Don Huffman calling for a debate on the Republican Party's state finances and the role of Republican presidents in the increasing federal debt.
Goldman said he wanted to debate Huffman on the "unprecedented irresponsibility and mismanagement of financial matters" outlined in an internal party audit detailing how the party found itself owing some $240,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.
The report has brought calls from some Republicans for the ouster of Huffman and Elton.
Huffman is in Taiwan for that nation's inaugural activities. So Elton responded by offering Goldman a debate with James Miller III, former President Ronald Reagan's budget director, who has been leading Republican calls for state budget reform.
"You may be an expert on taxes and spending, since you are chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia," said Elton's letter to Goldman. The letter invited Goldman to prepare to discuss several points, including the charge that the Democrat-controlled Congress passes the budget, not the president.
"Why can't Democrats work for solutions to the deficit that don't require tax increases?" Elton wrote.
Goldman accepted the debate with Miller but added a new condition Monday.
Goldman wrote that because he accepted the Republican's choice of participants, "I'm sure you will agree that it is only fair that I get to choose the time and place," which he set at the next meeting of the Republican state central committee in late July.
Elton did not take that suggestion seriously. He said Goldman's demand to debate a Republican at the Republican gathering is "a pretty strange idea."
"I'm not going to call Don Huffman in Taiwan and ask him," Elton said. "There are real issues of the day, and this isn't one of them."
by CNB