Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994 TAG: 9405230036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers is spotted at Aesy's Confectionery on Campbell Avenue Southwest plotting political strategy with a local union leader.
Is he simply touching base with a constituency that was crucial to his mayoral nomination? Or is he making sure it's still there if he needs to call on labor muscle again?
Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson follows up on the recent Roanoke City Council elections by proposing a city-county summit.
Is he merely reacting to the election of a new slate of City Council members who say they're serious about regional cooperation? Or is he also trying to polish his own regional cooperation credentials for the benefit of city voters who remember him as an anti-consolidation crusader?
Former state Sen. Granger Macfarlane makes a nice donation to the city Democratic Party so it can launch a new party newsletter.
Is he just trying to help out his party, or is he trying to remind Democrats that he's paid his dues in other ways and has the financial wherewithal to pay plenty more?
Don't look now, but the 1995 state Senate race in the Roanoke Valley is already getting under way - and even the slightest move by some of the valley's most prominent Democrats is being scrutinized for its electoral impact.
"You have a lot of talk at various coffee cliques and lunch counters downtown of potential scenarios," says Al Wilson, the city's Democratic chairman.
There are plenty of scenarios to talk about.
Sensing that freshman Republican Brandon Bell may be vulnerable next year, Democrats are talking up - or at least talking about - a half-dozen potential challengers.
Bell, who says he's always expected a stiff challenge in what traditionally has been a Democratic district, says that figure may be low.
"I've heard at least a dozen names," he says.
So far, only one of those mentioned admits he's actively running.
Macfarlane, the hotel company owner and two-term veteran defeated by Bell in 1991, says he's been courting key party activists "for a number of weeks" and expects to make a decision "fairly soon" about whether to run.
For now, he says, "I am considering it strongly."
Two other Democrats also being talked about include:
Johnson, a real-estate broker and third-term Hollins District supervisor who toyed with running for the state Senate in 1991.
And Roanoke lawyer John Fishwick Jr., who came within six convention votes of winning his party's 1992 nomination for Congress.
Both say supporters have urged them to run - and they acknowledge they're interested.
"I'm flattered people have contacted me already," Johnson says.
"Yes, I've had some people call me," Fishwick says. "I'm going to take a look at it."
Others being mentioned include:
Bowers, who says "more and more people within my party are inquiring to ask whether I want to be a candidate," but won't admit to any interest on his part.
Roanoke City Councilman John Edwards, another runner-up in the Democrats' five-ballot 1992 congressional convention, who says it's "premature" to talk about 1995 - but says he's wants to see how events "play out."
And then there's former Roanoke City Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick Jr., who says he's long hankered to serve in the Senate but believes it would be "inappropriate" for him to seek public office now that he's working a nonpartisan job with the New Century Council, a regional planning group.
Why so many potential candidates? And why so much talk about an election still 18 months away?
Easy, Democrats say.
They contend the 21st District - which includes the city and most of Roanoke County - is, by dint of demography, a Democratic-leaning one.
They acknowledge that the 1991 redistricting that brought virtually all of the county's suburban voters into the district diluted its working-class base and contributed to Macfarlane's defeat.
(Bell, a computer salesman from Cave Spring, targeted county voters with a highly effective direct-mail blitz that year and ran up thundering majorities in the suburban precincts.)
But Democrats also contend Bell was the beneficiary of two factors that won't be present next year - voters' distaste with then-Gov. Douglas Wilder and a half-hearted Democratic campaign.
"It's a district that Democrats should have," says Roanoke lawyer William Hopkins Jr., one of the few Democrats touted as potential candidates who's willing to rule himself out. "I know we have a lot of county voters, but it's a district we should win." Hopkins is urging Fishwick to run.
Democrats also make it clear they'll charge Bell with being a do-nothing legislator.
"Name me one piece of legislation Brandon Bell has sponsored that has benefited the Roanoke Valley," Johnson says, clearly relishing a fight. "Effectiveness is the key."
"There's a feeling we're not getting great representation," Fishwick adds.
Democrats also say they'll target Bell for his support of taxpayer-funded school vouchers for private schools.
Johnson threw the first punch in that fight in January, not long after Bell announced he was introducing his bill that would allow poor kids to receive vouchers to attend private schools.
Bell's inability to get the voucher bill passed in this session - it's been carried over until next year - is further proof of Bell's ineffectiveness, Democrats say.
"It blew up in his face," says Wilson, the city chairman. "He's been an ineffective legislator and he'll be easy to beat if he keeps on this path."
Bell, though, says he's prepared for that line of attack. Challengers will always say a freshman has been ineffective, he says.
"I've got plenty of evidence that I've worked with other legislators for the benefit of the Roanoke Valley," he says.
Such as? "Granger Macfarlane, in his last year in Richmond, saw financial support stripped for a number of local agencies, such as Center in the Square. He was in there eight years and was in the majority party."
By contrast, Bell says, in his first term, he was able to win more funding in the state Senate for some local groups - such as the Explore Park - than even the vaunted Del. Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County could win on the House side.
The charge of ineffectiveness, Bell says "won't carry any weight."
As for vouchers, he says Democrats are simply "leveling a lot of scare tactics" and toeing "the standard Democratic line that government should have all the choices."
By supporting vouchers, Bell says, he's looking out for parents who can't afford to send their kids to private schools.
For his part, Bell can expect to count on a powerful ally if he finds himself in a tough re-election fight.
Bell was an early supporter of Gov. George Allen, who has signaled he'll make a strong push next year to win Republican majorities in both houses of the General Assembly - and could be expected to look out for any of his friends who appear to be in trouble.
Republicans were able to turn the 1991 state Senate elections into a referendum on the unpopular Wilder administration - and picked up eight seats to narrow the Democrats' grip on the 40-member chamber to just four. They'll try to turn the 1995 elections into a referendum on the so-far popular Allen administration - and win enough seats to gain a majority.
Meanwhile, with so many potential candidates, many Democratic leaders say they're reconciled to a nomination fight.
"I would almost bet on it," Wilson says.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB