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

DATE: MONDAY, August 14, 1995                   TAG: 9508140105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER AND DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REASOR KICKS OFF BID BY REPROACHING GOP

WYTHEVILLE - State Sen. Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield, gave voters a preview of what many Democratic campaigns this fall will sound like when he kicked off his re-election bid last week. He took a swipe at Republican calls to turn over lottery proceeds to local governments and urged more spending on higher education.

Reasor - sometimes mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for attorney general in 1997 - chided Gov. George Allen for proposing in the veto session to return $15 million of the some $300 million in lottery profits to localities, now a standard plank in just about every Republican campaign platform this fall.

"I think this is ironic, especially since during the regular session only a few weeks before, he had attacked local governments as bloated and wasteful," Reasor said.

Reasor, a Tazewell County lawyer, is being challenged by Republican Frank Nunez, a retired Cedar Bluff resident who was library services coordinator at Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands.

With only three seats in each house making the difference in which party will control the next General Assembly, there will be an unusually partisan tone to this fall's elections. Many legislative campaigns across the state are going to sound the same.

One of the main Democratic themes this year - which Reasor sounded - is higher education funding.

Reasor said it is embarrassing that Virginia ranks 42nd out of 50 states on per-student spending in public colleges and universities, "especially when you consider that we are one of the wealthiest states ... and our in-state students pay, on average, the second-highest tuition in the country."

Reasor, however, said he backed Allen's effort to abolish parole. "I also agree with the governor that prisons should only be placed in communities and localities that want them," he said.

Reasor represents the counties of Wythe, Bland, Tazewell, Buchanan and Russell counties and part of Washington county, a district where Allen's prison-building program hit especially close to home. A private prison company wants to build in Wythe County, and state officials say Tazewell County has expressed some interest in being the site for a state prison.

\ Gilmore helps Averill

Yet another big-name Republican is coming to aid of Trixie Averill, the well-connected Republican challenger to House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.

Attorney General Jim Gilmore will headline a fund-raiser for Averill at the Hotel Roanoke on Aug. 22.

Last week, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kay Coles James was in Botetourt County for an Averill fund-raiser; earlier this summer, Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore and Virginia first lady Susan Allen starred at Averill events.

Falkinburg switches advisers

Boyd Marcus, the Richmond political consultant who masterminded Allen's ascent to the governorship, had been advising two Republican House of Delegates challengers in the Roanoke Valley.

Now he's only consulting one.

House candidate Newell Falkinburg - who's opposing Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke - recently picked a new political consultant out of Alexandria, Jim Jonas.

"I was not unhappy with Boyd," Falkinburg says. "My concern with Boyd was he was spread too thin," handling a dozen or so races across the state. As a political novice, "I felt I needed more handholding than Boyd could give," Falkinburg says.

Marcus, whose take-no-prisoners style of politics has earned him the nickname "The Prince of Darkness" in Republican circles, continues to advise Averill.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB