ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DANVILLE
TYPE: ELECTION '96
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
Four hundred pairs of eyes darted back and forth between 5th District Republican congressional candidate George Landrith, standing at the podium, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, sitting behind him.
Secret Service agents milled about Dan Daniel Memorial Park on Saturday, and Landrith's staffers wove in and out, making sure people had campaign signs to hold up. Television cameras pulled in for tight shots. Holding one of his daughters, and occasionally glancing down at his tight, terse speech, Landrith received bursts of applause for such zingers as: "I have news for the Clintons: It doesn't take a village to raise a child; it takes a loving family!"
As the crowd chanted "Newt! Newt! Newt!" Gingrich mounted the stage for a 30-minute speech about welfare, family values and drug use by White House staffers.
Gingrich joked that he wouldn't be giving any Ted Kennedy speeches that kids shouldn't do their homework or work for a dollar.
"You've got to do your homework, you've got to learn something. Yes, you ought to be able to do math well enough so that you don't get cheated when you go to the store. That's not being mean. That's being honest. What's mean is the Democratic welfare system that has put poor people in public housing and surrounded them with drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes."
Gingrich also came with a promise. He said he and Virginia Republicans in Congress, such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke, have agreed to support Landrith for a position on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee if Landrith is elected.
The speaker called the district a "winnable" race for Landrith and had strong words about Landrith's opponent, state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount. Gingrich said Goode would support anti-tobacco Democrats such as Henry Waxman if elected.
"Here's somebody who'd like you to believe he's a conservative, but he's on the wrong party. ... If you see [Goode], ask him who he's going to vote for president."
As for Goode, a couple of hours earlier and 30 miles away, he prepared to give his own speech at a barbecue dinner for about 75 people at the American Legion Hall in Gretna. While he was being introduced, Goode leaned on a speaker and drafted his remarks on a piece of cardboard he had torn from a box of pens he was handing out.
Stepping up to the microphone, Goode shouted to the back: "Would it be better to talk like this? Can y'all hear me back there?" Then he thanked some of his friends for the delicious custard pies they had made.
Obviously, Goode and Landrith's campaign styles come from different worlds, and not unexpectedly. As an influential longtime state senator who ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate against Chuck Robb, Goode would seem to be a political insider. Landrith, an Albemarle County lawyer, has never been elected to public office, though he nearly won his 1994 race for Congress against 5th District Rep. L.F. Payne, who is retiring this year.
But it's Landrith who holds ritzy $250-a-plate formal dinners and brings big names such as Gingrich and Steve Forbes to campaign for him, while Goode holds informal take-off-your-shoes-and-clog-a-bit barbecues.
In terms of fund raising and name recognition, though, the national approach might not help Landrith. Goode has raised almost $225,000 so far to Landrith's $105,000; and in a recent community conversation sponsored by The Roanoke Times in Bedford County, more people knew Goode than Landrith.
"Virgil's very popular," said Henry County Democratic Chairman Phil Burnette. "There is not anybody who is going to outwork Virgil. Any time you find anybody in Virgil's senatorial district rubbing two sticks together, Virgil's going to be there."
At his barbecue Saturday, Goode weaved in and out of the crowd, shaking hands in a crowd of black and white faces, young and old. As people ate their $5-a-plate sandwiches, baked beans and cole slaw, the New Valley Echoes, a Roanoke band, sang Christian songs with such lyrics as "I'm going to get carried away when I get carried away." Homemade cakes and pies and bottles of soda made the room look like a church social or a bake sale. Goode was the only one who wore a tie.
Goode talked about the need for increased Medicare spending and emphasized his support for tobacco farmers and a balanced budget amendment. Some of his supporters in the audience joked about Gingrich's visit, though.
Burnette asked, "You ever looked up newt in the dictionary? I think it says something about a small fish. Landrith can bring in all the small fish he wants."
"If Newt wants to be president, he ought to run," said Bill Hooper, a firefighter from Lawrenceville. "Newt don't know nothing about the people of Southside. Virgil knows better. I think he can do better for us because he's been here and he knows the working people in this district."
Goode agreed. "I think the heavy hitters are the people in the district, they're the ones that vote." He is concerned that Landrith's allegiances might be to the national party rather than to the people of the 5th District.
In Danville, however, Newt-mania was the rule of the day.
As the Tightsqueeze Philharmonic Band played such tunes as "Georgia on My Mind," the almost entirely white, middle-class audience waited for the speaker to show up and ate their $25 a plate dinners of barbecued chicken breast, cole slaw and baked beans.
Joseph Dodson hoped to get his copy of Gingrich's "To Renew America" signed. He and his wife and his two daughters sat having a picnic while they waited.
"I admire what he's trying to do," Dodson said. "This is a conservative area, it's a family-oriented area, and we're interested in change as much as Newt is."
Dolores Reynolds, wearing a "Thank God for Newt" T-shirt, said: "Mr. Newt has gotten a lot more support and respect and love than he's been given credit for. I think anybody he's campaigning for, he'll help."
Also running for the seat is Gary Thomas, school teacher from Pittsylvania County.
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines KEYWORDS: POLITIC CONGRESSby CNB