Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 9, 1992 TAG: 9203090104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sixth District Democrats have adopted a major rules change for their congressional nomination, but no one can figure out who it helps or hurts.
Instead of picking convention delegates locality by locality on the traditional winner-take-all system, delegates will now be allocated proportionately. In other words, when Democrats assemble in local mass meetings on April 11 and 13, they'll take a vote to see how much support each candidate has - 40 percent of the crowd translates into 40 percent of that locality's delegates, and so on.
District Chairman John Edwards - who's also one of the three candidates - says Democrats decided on the proportional system because many local activists accustomed to going to conventions felt shut out during the big gubernatorial nomination fight in 1985 when their side lost.
The proportional system means Edwards and John Fishwick can be expected to go into Roanoke County, Steve Musselwhite's home turf, and come away with some delegates. But by the same token, Musselwhite can now expect to win some delegates in Edwards' and Fishwick's base in Roanoke. And neither Edwards nor Fishwick can count on shutting out the other in an all-or-nothing showdown in the Star City.
Ultimately, the proportional system may simply guarantee that when the last gavel bangs on April 13, the congressional race may be no clearer than it seems today.
Count on multiple ballots at the May 9 convention. Are there any significant differences between the three democrats?
If so, they were hard to find when they appeared Wednesday at Hollins College. Asked afterward if they heard any differences among them, the candidates replied, usually with a smile:
"Yeah, my name is Steve and their name is John." - Steve Musselwhite.
"I'm just working on my campaign and working on getting my message out." - John Fishwick.
"Yeah, foreign aid." - John Edwards. Now that you mention it . . .
Gradually, some differences are starting to emerge . . . between the lines.
Edwards, who majored in diplomatic history at Princeton and wrote his senior thesis on the Marshall Plan, gave a detailed answer at the Hollins forum about why the United States should provide aid to the former Soviet republics.
Edwards said the United States should help bolster democratic institutions and build up free-market economies in the former Soviet republics - much as the Marshall Plan helped build up Western Europe into a stable and prosperous trading partner after World War II.
"It's in the best interest of the world economy and in the best interest of world peace," he said.
Fishwick and Musselwhite both said they understand the need for some foreign aid, but generally gave what might be described as more populist answers about helping Americans first.
"I don't understand why we have a government that steps over the homeless and past the unemployed and the hungry and goes to the post office to mail checks all over the world.
'Bout that middle-class squeeze
All three Democrats profess support for middle-class tax cuts, but they weren't very specific at the Hollins forum about how to do it.
Musselwhite: "I'm not convinced that giving people 55 cents a day is what the middle class is really looking for, but we have to do a lot to help out that middle section."
Edwards: "We don't need any election-year tax gimmicks, but we need some investment tax incentives."
When Fishwick's turn to speak came, he uttered just a single sentence and then sat down: "I'm for a middle-class tax cut and oppose a capital-gains tax cut."
(Musselwhite has outspokenly campaigned for a capital-gains tax cut, saying it's needed to reinvigorate the real estate market. "If you have a $30,000 house, you're going to benefit the same as a person with a $100,000 house," he says.)
Musselwhite talks farming
Musselwhite was in Harrisonburg last week to release his five-page agricultural plan in the heart of the district's farm country.
Among the highlights: He wants the federal government to take funds now used to promote tobacco exports and channel them into other products, such as poultry, beef and apples.
No surprises, there. Sixth District farmers don't grow tobacco, but they raise plenty of poultry, beef and apples.
Musselwhite's also big in the American Heart Association - he's vice chairman of the national fund-raising committee - so the tobacco lobby shouldn't count him on for any favors, anyway.
Jerry Brown isn't the only candidate with an 800 number
Republicans will start finding out this week whether the unknown Donna Vance Erikson from Lynchburg can muster any strength in the GOP mass meetings.
Salem Republicans meet tonight at 7:30 to select convention delegates; Botetourt County and Roanoke County meet Thursday night.
Erikson has been running radio ads giving a toll-free number people can call to find out how to get involved - it's 1-800-528-VOTE - but the ads don't mention any hot-button issues such as abortion or gun control that might mobilize voters.
Bob Goodlatte supporters are hoping by the time the Roanoke and Lynchburg mass meetings are held on March 17 and 18, their man will have the nomination all but locked up. YANCEY
by CNB