Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993                   TAG: 9304220143
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WAKEFIELD                                LENGTH: Medium

CANDIDATES VIE FOR ATTENTION AT THIS YEAR'S SHAD PLANKING

Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-Petersburg, was the featured speaker for the 45th annual event, but the politicians getting much of the attention were those running for statewide office this year.

Candidates of both parties either showed up or had staffers plaster roads with campaign signs and hand out campaign stickers.

Sisisky, one of the Democrats in Congress to oppose President Clinton's economic plan, gave a crowd-pleasing speech about the importance of maintaining defense commitments even while cutting the federal budget.

"I'm one Virginia congressman who may lose his White House tickets because I wanted a budget to match that commitment," Sisisky said.

He said U.S. Sens. John Warner and Charles Robb had to miss the Shad Planking because they were caught in the Senate filibuster over Clinton's economic stimulus package, which the Senate killed Wednesday.

Once a retreat where only white men were invited to eat the bony fish, drink bourbon and anoint the state's political leaders, the Shad Planking has been opened in recent years to anyone who pays $12.50 for a ticket. The proceeds go to the Wakefield Ruritan Club for community projects.

As the rural Southside has lost political clout to Virginia's urban areas, so has the Shad Planking diminished in importance.

It has become primarily a spring social where politicians and lobbyists in suits mix with local good old boys in jeans and baseball caps.

Still the event draws big-name politicians.

Gov. Douglas Wilder showed up, as did the fellow Democrat who wants to succeed him, former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry.

George Allen, one of three Republican candidates for governor, said he started coming to the Shad Planking 17 years ago.

"It's a good place to make a lot of good contacts," Allen said. "It's a place where people more interested in politics than eating fish come together."

Bobbie Kilberg, one of two GOP candidates for lieutenant governor, was attending her first Shad Planking. She had nothing but kind words for the event, even the fish that some say is less tasty than the boards on which it is cooked.

"It's sweet. I liked it," she said.

Keywords:
POLITICS