Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Morgan Griffith and Howard Packett telegraphed months ago that their race for the House of Delegates wouldn't exactly be the sort of campaign that would win a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
First, Republican Griffith accused Democrat Packett of plotting to wage a "whisper campaign" against Griffith's parents, who were divorced when he was a child. His evidence: Packett's operatives had rooted through the Salem courthouse and photocopied documents that identify Griffith's father.
Returning fire, Democrats commissioned a poll on Packett's behalf that asked voters whether it bothered them that Griffith - a Salem lawyer - had once represented someone accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
So it shouldn't surprise voters, when they open their mailbox or turn on their radio, to find that the race to succeed retiring Del. Steve Agee, R-Salem, is ending on the same sharp personal note on which it began.
Packett, who runs an advertising agency, has spent much of his campaign emphasizing that Griffith is a lawyer, and he's not - a common enough tactic.
But last week, Packett mailed out a flier accusing Griffith of being a hypocrite for talking tough on crime while getting some of his clients off easy.
Packett's flier zeroed in on two cases in which Griffith represented drug dealers. One man was given a suspended sentence for selling marijuana; another had four years suspended from a five-year sentence for selling speed.
Displaying a Monopoly-like "Morgan Griffith `Get Out of Jail Free' Card," the flier declared: "Lawyer Morgan Griffith has helped countless drug dealers stay out of jail and run loose on our streets. . . . Morgan Griffith is a great lawyer for drug dealers, but he's the wrong leader for us!"
That line of attack didn't sit well with at least one Democratic leader in the district. Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith, a former county Democratic chairman, promptly broke ranks and endorsed Griffith.
"That was so scurrilous, I couldn't have anything to do with supporting that kind of campaign," Keith said. "Every person charged with a crime has a right to an attorney, and an attorney has an ethical duty to represent a person charged with a crime, no matter how vile."
Packett's attempt to make an issue of the legal cases Griffith has handled - as a court-appointed attorney, no less - "has demonstrated he has no knowledge of the American legal system," Keith said.
Packett brushed off the defection, saying that only lawyers were upset by the flier. "When someone goes around saying they're going to get tough on criminals and then turns around and defends them, people need to know that," Packett said. So what if Griffith had been appointed by the court, Packett reasons. "He still got paid whether he was court-appointed or not."
Griffith concedes Packett's mailer did some damage - for a while. "I think it had a short-term effect. People who read it were shocked, but then they thought about it" and realized that's what lawyers do for a living: They represent people charged with crimes.
He predicts he'll benefit from a voter backlash.
Either way, look for things to get even more contentious: Packett, who has used his business ties to raise almost $86,000 to Griffith's $48,000, should have enough money to keep voters' mailboxes stuffed with more hard-hitting mail.
Griffith, meanwhile, has taken to the airwaves with a tear-jerking commercial that features one of the boys on his swim team asking why Packett is saying such mean things about Griffith.
What's making this race so, well, personal?
For one thing, the candidates are both from Salem and are fighting in close quarters for the same political turf.
Packett needs a big margin in Salem, where he's served three terms on City Council, to overcome the traditional Republican vote in suburban Roanoke County and rural Montgomery County. Griffith, by contrast, hopes to win the same way Agee always turned back Democrats: by fighting to at least a draw in Salem, then piling on the GOP vote in the rest of the district.
But to take Salem out of the Democratic column, Griffith must neutralize Packett's long resume from council. To do that, he relentlessly depicts Packett as a do-nothing councilman who's under the thumb of a "strong-willed" mayor.
To be sure, each candidate's style is an issue. Packett says he's a quiet, behind-the-scenes conciliator who would be effective at building coalitions in Richmond; Griffith says Packett is too laid-back. The gung-ho Griffith contends that Western Virginia legislators need to be more aggressive and outspoken if they're to be heard in a legislature dominated by the "urban crescent."
Beneath the campaign din, though, there are some actual legislative issues at stake.
Packett has adopted the main plank of Mary Sue Terry's gubernatorial bid - a five-day waiting period for buying handguns - as his own.
That may be a calculated risk on Packett's part as a way to crack the Republican strongholds outside Salem; polls consistently show such waiting periods are popular with GOP-leaning suburban voters.
But it risks alienating rural voters. "Packett's a little tight on guns," observed voter Roger Alley of Alleghany Spring.
The two candidates also have some ideas that, for a time, promised to make the campaign a high-minded discussion of the economic future of the Roanoke and New River valleys.
Griffith says the region should concentrate on building up its status as a transportation hub.
He says he'll use the delegate's post to push for the proposed Interstate 73 to be routed as close to the Roanoke Valley as possible. He's also called for the state to set up a "dry-land port" in the region, which could boost the valleys' role as a distribution center by creating an inland extension of Hampton Roads' cargo-loading facilities.
Packett, meanwhile, takes a more high-tech approach. He says the valleys should market themselves to fiber-optics companies; he also says part of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant should be converted to a fireworks factory.
Yet for all of the campaign wrangling, some voters may be inclined to make up their minds less on issues and more on intuition.
That's how Alley, who runs Alley's Country Market in Alleghany Spring, a Montgomery County hollow, made up his.
Both candidates came by his store to shake hands. But Griffith came back one Saturday night to listen to the "Alleghany Opry," the weekly session of local bluegrass that takes place in the back room "if any pickers show up."
"He didn't talk politics to anybody that night," Alley said. "He just wanted to be here to listen."
That was enough to get Alley's vote.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB