ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611050016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
BEFORE THIS long campaign comes mercifully to an end, another task remains to be done, the most important task. Election Day, Virginians should vote both as an exercise of citizenship and to express their views about the nation's direction.
Here's a summary of our views on the elections:
* For president: Bill Clinton.
It's impossible to muster much enthusiasm for a candidate so shamelessly changeable and opportunistic. Clinton, moreover, could find his administration still under a cloud in a second term, as various ethics probes pursue unpredictable results.
Give him credit, though, for finding the center that congressional Republicans abandoned, and for seeking ways to preserve public responsibilities while downsizing central bureaucracy.
Bob Dole erred by not running as himself: an experienced legislator, deal-maker, fiscal moderate. Instead, his mismanaged, incoherent campaign has grasped at one straw after another, from tax cuts to campaign finance - most recently blaming "liberals" and "the media" for the Republican's woes - all the while failing to make a case for choosing him over President Clinton.
* For Senate: John Warner.
Sen. John Warner has a voting record that, in many instances, we don't admire. But he has shown an ability to work with others in Congress with positive results for Virginia. Above all, he was proud enough of the Senate, and principled enough as a politician, to stand up to his party's far right and oppose the 1992 bid of Iran-Contra scofflaw Oliver North.
Democrat Mark Warner makes a good pitch for the need to engage technological change with both understanding of its import and concern for those it may leave behind. But he lacks experience in public office.
* For the House of Representatives: Goodlatte, Boucher, Goode.
Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, would tread on civil liberties to promote prayer in school and censorship on the Internet. But he is on the whole a reasonable and effective legislator, committed to deficit reduction and constituent service. His influence in Congress is growing, and he deserves much of the credit for getting I-73 routed through this region.
Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, has smartly combined expert lawmaking, most notably in this year's telecommunications reform, with efforts to help his mostly rural 9th District upgrade its economic-development infrastructure.
Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, is running for an open seat in the 5th District. He would go to Washington a rural populist and fiscal conservative. His record in the Virginia assembly reflects not only constituents' pro-tobacco, anti-gun-control sentiments, but also a refreshing impatience with excessive partisanship.
* State constitutional amendments: "Yes" on Questions 1, 3, 4 and 5. "No" on Question 2.
The ballot's first amendment proposal would make state employee pensions an independent trust fund - a good defense against political abuse.
No. 3 would reasonably extend to prosecutors the right, now enjoyed only by defense attorneys, to appeal some court decisions. Double jeopardy would still be a no-no.
No. 4 would bring Virginia's voter-registration procedures into accord with new federal procedures. Keeping separate rules for state and federal elections would be absurd.
No. 5 would allow churches to incorporate as non-profit organizations. Every other state except West Virginia allows it.
The only amendment we oppose is Question 2, which says crime victims should be treated with dignity and fairness. Of course they should. But this amendment would neither enable nor require the General Assembly to do anything that it cannot do, or hasn't already done. This is a political vehicle for Attorney General Jim Gilmore. It doesn't belong in the constitution.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS ENDORSEMENTby CNB