Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now they have two candidates who want the job, and Republicans are gearing up for a contest for the party nomination.
Jim Lowe, an engineer and lawyer with Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern, may announce his candidacy this week. Newell Falkinburg, a doctor specializing in kidney diseases and high blood pressure with Valley Nephrology Associates, says he'll formally declare a week or so later.
Republican leaders - and the two prospective candidates - say they expect this to be a "friendly" battle for the nomination, which will be decided at a mass meeting sometime in April or May.
"I don't see this as a large chasm between Dr. Falkinburg and myself as far as political philosophy is concerned," Lowe says. Both men style themselves as conservatives.
Lowe believes the nomination likely will be decided on who has the best organizational skills to turn out a crowd of supporters. "In a mass-meeting situation, it's really wearing out your fingers," Lowe says. "You can do it by calling your 250 closest friends."
If there are issues, they appear so far to be mostly who's got the best resume.
"I'm older, I've lived here longer," says Falkinburg, who's 54 and has lived in Roanoke since 1974, "almost long enough to be a native," he jokes. Lowe, by contrast, is 38 and has lived in Roanoke since 1991.
Lowe, however, stresses a "diverse" background that includes stints with the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Navy, where he worked with the White House Military Office. "I've worked in the public sector, I've worked in the private sector," Lowe says. "I joke that [Falkinburg] has one professional license, while I have two, but there's also some truth to that humor."
Falkinburg predicts the competition will be "healthy" for the party by energizing activists who haven't focused on the seat for a decade, and other top Republicans agree. "You hope they will bring new people into the process," says state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County. "I can't see any downside to it."
Party leaders say they can't predict a favorite, either. "It's a real race," says William Fralin, the city Republican chairman. "The outcome is very much in doubt."
Why are Republicans suddenly so interested in Woodrum's seat that they're now fighting over who can run for it?
"It shows you the value of a Republican nomination these days," says Scott Leake, the chief staffer for the Republican caucus in the General Assembly.
Republicans have eyed Woodrum's seat ever since the 1991 re-districting added six GOP-dominated precincts in the Cave Spring section of Roanoke County to a district that already included Republican-leaning South Roanoke and the swing neighborhoods of Raleigh Court, plus Northwest Roanoke, a Democratic bastion.
Woodrum's district is, by Leake's reckoning, the 24th-most Democratic House district in the state. Still, Republicans George Allen and Jim Gilmore carried it in their 1993 races for governor and attorney general.
"It's the kind of seat we're going to have to win to take a majority," Fralin says.
Fat chance, replies Allen Wilson, the city Democratic chairman. "Falkinburg and Lowe are primarily going to draw from South Roanoke, and you give Chip Woodrum a street address there, he can tell you who lives there," Wilson says.
"Republicans see a certain vulnerability with the present office-holder because he opposed the governor [during the General Assembly] but the the governor was wrong and the people of Roanoke, for the most part, seem to recognize that."
Woodrum himself voiced little concern about the prospect of facing opposition for the first time since he easily defeated Marc Small in 1985. "I'm flattered so many people are interested in my job," he says.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB