ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DEMOCRATS ARE MOUNTING a major search for an opponent for Rep. Bob Goodlatte. So far, they've come up empty-handed. But Goodlatte's campaigning anyway.
These past few months, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, has been at the center of the action in Washington.
First, he wrote the controversial compromise on the telecommunication bill that would prohibit "indecent" material on the Internet. He said it would protect children, but civil libertarians charged it would stifle creativity and keep many great works of literature out of cyberspace.
Next, he took on both President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich when he introduced the key provision that ended the federal government shutdown, by which Congress agreed to restore operating funds, provided Clinton submitted a balanced budget.
For a day, Goodlatte's Capitol Hill office swarmed with visitors, as both journalists and congressional staffers sought copies of what became known as "the Goodlatte proposal." Careful observers of the CBS Evening News may even have spotted a clip of Goodlatte's top aide, Tim Phillips, handing out copies as Republican House members streamed into their caucus.
But even as Goodlatte has achieved his most notable acclaim in Washington, he has quietly been devoting himself to a project closer to home: re-election.
Since the November elections for the state legislature, which saw several candidates closely identified with him go down to defeat, Goodlatte has been methodically working the phones to pin down the support of key business leaders and other community figures around the 6th District, which stretches from Roanoke to Lynchburg to Harrisonburg.
He has fired off a fund-raising letter and is making arrangements for three fund-raising events in February that he said will bring "prominent members of the House" to the district to speak on his behalf as he begins to seek a third term.
Goodlatte - known for his tenacity on the campaign trail - said he's not doing anything differently than he did two years ago, when he geared up a campaign machine even though Democrats eventually failed to mount a candidate against him during his first re-election run. "I've always taken this very seriously," he said.
But one of his key supporters suggested otherwise. "Bob's taking it much more seriously this time around," said Roanoke County insurance man Ron Adkins, a member of Goodlatte's fund-raising committee. "It was almost taken as a given two years ago that they couldn't field a candidate. We're taking it to the bank this time: He's going to have a candidate against him."
Indeed, Democrats - made bold by last fall's election victories and what they see as the declining popularity of the Republican-controlled Congress - are mounting an intensive search for an opponent. Roanoke lawyer Onzlee Ware, 6th District Democratic chairman, admitted he doesn't have a candidate lined up yet, or even anyone who has expressed an inkling of interest.
Still, he said, "every day I'm talking with folks about getting a credible candidate, because I think Bob is vulnerable."
Ware said he first approached Roanoke lawyer John Fishwick Jr., who narrowly lost the Democratic nomination to insurance executive Steve Musselwhite in 1992, when Goodlatte went on to win his first term in Congress. But Ware said Fishwick told him he wasn't interested just now. "I think John's problem is he's got family commitments and his law practice is growing; the timing is just not right for him."
Ware also sought out Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., a former Roanoke vice mayor who now runs the New Century Council, a group of business and community leaders drawing up an economic plan for Western Virginia.
The buzz that Ware was talking to Fitzpatrick quickly made the rounds of Democratic - and Republican - activists, but Fitzpatrick said he's not going to run. "I've made a commitment to the New Century Council. I think it would be inappropriate for me to consider walking away from it."
Likewise, three other Democrats who have been mentioned as candidates said they're not interested, either: former Roanoke state Sen. Granger Macfarlane, Roanoke Mayor David Bowers and Del. Creigh Deeds of Warm Springs.
Nevertheless, the Democrats' energetic search has spurred Goodlatte into a higher gear. "He feels they gave him a walk one time, they're not going to do it again," Adkins said. "He is seriously getting a [fund-raising] committee together and he is going to be focused on it. I'd almost put this on the same basis as the first time he ran," when Goodlatte moved so quickly to line up support that he effectively foreclosed any serious GOP opposition for the party nomination.
"When he's in town on weekends, he's doing what he needs to do to campaign," Adkins said. "I think very soon you'll see a stepping-up of the operation to make the public aware he's up and running."
Democrats believe Goodlatte, who won election with 60 percent of the vote in 1992 even though President Bush was going down to defeat, is now vulnerable for several reasons.
"Congress right now is unpopular and is going to be more unpopular with this deadlock," Ware said. Furthermore, he said, Goodlatte is too identified with Gingrich and other conservative elements of the party, citing Goodlatte's co-sponsorship of a proposed constitutional amendment on religious freedom. Goodlatte said it would clear up confusion about when it's acceptable for students to pray in schools and governments to fund activities that have ties to religious groups, such as church-run schools; critics said it would subvert the First Amendment guarantees separating church and state.
"I wouldn't say a constitutional amendment on prayer is the most pressing issue out there," Ware said. "That's all I see Bob doing, the fluff stuff."
Goodlatte, not surprisingly, disagreed. "I think my voting record reflects the philosophy of the majority of people in the district," he said. He also cited his nonpartisan work in getting Congress to designate a route for Interstate 73 through the Roanoke Valley and in securing planning funds for another interstate that would run through Covington and Lynchburg.
Even some Democrats agreed that the conservative landscape of the district makes a challenge difficult - especially in a presidential election year. Virginia is one of the most reliably Republican states in the country in presidential elections, having voted for the GOP candidate in every presidential race except one since 1952. (The exception: 1964, when Virginians voted for Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater.)
The 6th District "is Republican-leaning, so it's tough for any Democrat," Deeds said. "I'm confident we'll have a Democratic candidate, but I think it's going to take a lot of soul-searching."
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