ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606100037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 11, 1996.
No one is serving as chairman of the Franklin County Republican
Party, the result of a deal worked out Saturday between the two most
recent leaders of the party, Randy Huckaba and Carthan Currin. The post
will remain open until a special mass meeting in July to elect a new
chairman. A story Sunday had incorrect information.
CARTHAN CURRIN and Randy Huckaba are dueling for leadership of the Franklin County GOP. The sticking point? The use of proxy votes at mass meetings.
Carthan Currin left King of the Sea Restaurant in Danville on Saturday as once, and perhaps future, king of Franklin County Republicans.
But for now, Randy Huckaba remains the leader of the party.
Using a second avenue for appeal, Currin and his lawyers met Saturday with the 5th District Republican Committee for more than three hours.
Currin was ousted as the county party's chairman in March at a tumultuous mass meeting that left the local party in chaos.
He was defeated that night by a pile of proxy votes - ballots that Currin says can't be used at a mass meeting.
Currin won the vote of people who actually attended the March meeting, but the proxies gave Huckaba, of Ferrum, the victory.
Currin, of Rocky Mount, appealed to the local party's central committee and lost.
Saturday, as the 5th District Committee listened, the Currin and Huckaba camps worked out a deal to schedule another Franklin County mass meeting to elect a chairman, according to Donivan Edwards, the 5th District GOP chairman.
The meeting will be held in July, Edwards said.
Currin and Huckaba could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Huckaba's win in at the mass meeting in March split county Republicans.
On one side were Huckaba backers, who said Currin was too moderate. They said Currin's support of U.S. Sen. John Warner - a longtime incumbent who's in a tussle with Jim Miller for the party's nomination this year - is too much to bear. Warner, who refused to endorse two of his party mates - U.S. Senate candidate Oliver North in 1994 and lieutenant governor candidate Mike Farris in 1993 - has come under fire from die-hard Republicans who believe he betrayed them.
On the other side of the Franklin County squabble are Currin's supporters, who backed his fight to regain the chairmanship to score a victory for more middle-of-the-road Republicans.
After the way he lost the post in March, Currin launched a no-holds-barred counterattack.
He had harsh words for the Huckaba bloc of the local party, buoyed by Harris Warner, a Roanoke lawyer who said he knew about the proxy votes - and Currin's possible ouster - prior to the mass meeting.
Currin had the help of Del. Allen Dudley of Rocky Mount, Franklin County's only Republican elected official. Dudley called for Harris Warner to resign from his post as a vice-chairman of the party.
But Warner, Huckaba, and several other members of the county's Republican Central Committee stood their ground. The local committee, on a 4-2 vote, denied Currin's local appeal in April.
Harris Warner, who's not related to John Warner, continues to maintain that proxy voting at mass meetings is a fair way to play politics.
On Friday, Chris LaCivita, the new executive director of the state party, said Currin should be re-installed as chairman.
Using proxy votes at a mass meeting, something that LaCivita says goes against the state party plan, would set a dangerous precedent.
"The comments Carthan made in the newspaper didn't help matters," LaCivita said, "but we can't allow voting by proxy" at a mass meeting.
Currin's fight, though, represents much more than proxy votes.
Just ask John Warner.
The senator is waging a similar battle on a statewide level, and he sent a letter of support to Currin recently.
George Landrith, the Republican candidate for the 5th District Congressional seat, may also have a stake in what happens to Currin.
Currin and state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount, Landrith's Democratic opponent, have mutual respect for one another and have maintained an open dialogue through the years.
Currin, who threw his support behind state Del. Frank Ruff instead of Landrith for the party's nomination, hasn't discussed his feelings about Landrith since the Albemarle County lawyer won the party's nomination last month.
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