DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   74 lines

NOT-SO-GREAT DEBATE GILMORE-BEYER MUDFEST

``I don't think either of you are demons,'' moderator and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder injected midway through Monday night's gubernatorial debate.

We didn't either until watching the appalling televised exchange between Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. and Republican James S. Gilmore III. Now, we're less sure.

Unfortunately, the pair spent most of the two-hour session trying to prove Wilder wrong. Virginians could be forgiven for thinking their choice is between embracing the devil and drowning in the deep blue sea.

Believe Gilmore's depiction of Beyer and you'd see the two-term lieutenant governor, who is a warm and witty man, as a lying scoundrel who speaks out of both sides of his mouth and views public office as a way to feather his already padded nest.

Accept Beyer's portrait of Gilmore and you'd view the former attorney general, who is a conscientious and principled public servant, as a Pat Robertson clone whose primary legacy as a former prosecutor was letting legions of child molesters go free.

It would be pointless to argue over who set the tone or dug deepest into his tar bucket. There is blame and shame enough to go around. In the candidates' defense, too many of the questions took on a ``When-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife?'' edge. But the pair needed no bait to launch into attacks that clearly had been programmed and drilled into their heads in advance.

An audience presumably assembled with the hope of hearing rational discussion about transportation needs, failing schools and declining cities was reduced to audibly moaning at Beyer's naming yet another pedophile or Gilmore's spouting the epithet ``dishonest'' one more time.

As mud-wrestling, the evening was entertaining enough. No one seemed to be dozing off. But as rational discourse, the exhanges were as far off the mark as a space shuttle barrelling toward the sun.

Clearly relishing his stint in the catbird seat, Wilder graciously praised both candidates and pressed them to agree to forego negative campaigning.

Beyer accepted the challenge, at least to the point of pledging to attach his own face to his television advertisements - so long as his opponent did the same. But the debate was evidence that such a step, promoted as a way of cleaning up political advertising, would probably have minimal results.

Neither candidate seemed to have any trouble facing the camera and calling his opponent a dog.

While we hesitate to name a winner of this dubious affair, Beyer seemed to have the edge in spontaneity and sharpness. Gilmore, who was suffering from the flu, spoke with more of a monotone and failed to capitalize on several apparent openings.

But one wonders whether Beyer will have done himself a disservice in the long run by keeping the focus on crime. Republicans usually claim that issue, and his claim that Gilmore was a poor prosecutor strains credulity.

Democrats have the historic advantage with education. Beyer would have been better served to concentrate on the issues he claims to care most about: pre-school education, teachers' salaries, high school dropouts, pregnancy prevention and the like.

There are four weeks left until the election. We urge Jim Gilmore and Don Beyer and their handlers to resolve to make Monday night the low mark of the campaign. Please. No more mentions of Pat Robertson. No spurious claims of dishonesty. No appeals to the lowest common denominator. No more pandering contest to see who can promise the biggest tax cut.

This pair can do better, much better. For years, as public officials, they have.

If we were their mothers, we would send them to their rooms to reflect on truth, dignity and the value of shame. Better yet, we would instruct them to stay there until they were ready to behave or until Election Day, whichever came first.

Either way, Virginians would be the winners by never again having to witness such an ill-tempered and unenlightening performance.

Such mud-slinging gives politics a bad name. It's why people are turned off to civic participation. We suspect that many responded in the most appropriate way, switching off their television sets.

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