Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081958
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CITY RACES: SO FAR, DEMOCRATS BENEFIT

That conclusion is compelled by three developments of recent days:

The announcement by veteran Councilman Robert Garland on Tuesday, hours before the nominating meeting of his Republican Party, that he would not seek another term;

The inability of local Republicans, despite predictions they would field a full ticket for the three seats, to come up with more than one candidate, political novice Roland "Spanky" Macher; and

The bizarre manner in which incumbent James Trout, who ran four years ago as a Democrat, became an independent candidate for re-election.

In announcing his retirement, Garland cited an inescapable fact of everyone's life: aging. Garland, 39 when he first won a council seat in 1962, is now 67. Though in good health, he said, "you cannot be indifferent to the ticking of the biological clock."

Garland also mentioned an inescapable fact of Roanoke political life: Democrats outnumber Republicans by about a 3-2 ratio. Republicans can win in the city, but it's not easy.

That Garland for so long could beat those odds reflects the respect in which he was held. The Democrats' failure to come up with more than two candidates for three seats in 1982 and in 1986 may have helped Garland in those elections - but it also suggests a lack of keen Democratic appetite for unseating him.

This year, however, it became evident early that the Democrats would nominate a full slate. Renomination by the GOP was Garland's for the asking, but re-election would have been more difficult. One influence on his decision to retire, Garland said, was his aversion to the possibility of a campaign of fierce recriminations.

Up to that point, however, the brouhahas of the campaign had involved Garland not at all. Rather, they had involved maneuvering among the Democrats.

First, the Musser-Harvey-White trio announced it would seek the Democratic nominations as a ticket, thereby shutting out Trout.

Then, Trout embarked on an I'm-out-I'm-in-again path. Shortly before the Democratic nominating meeting, he announced he would not run again. Citing potential reduction of railroad-pension benefits when he turns 60 next month, Trout said also that he would resign from council effective April 1.

But last week, after the Musser-Harvey-White ticket won the Democratic nomination without opposition, Trout withdrew his resignation and declared he would be an independent candidate for re-election. (Also filing this week as an independent candidate was Cecil McClanahan, about whom little is known.) Trout had learned, he said, that it would be another two years before he'd qualify for his pension anyway.

All that leaves Trout in an awkward position. Either he must concede that his pension problem was a ploy all along, or he must explain to the voters why they should re-elect to council someone who didn't even know at what age his own retirement benefits are to begin.

As for the Republicans, businessman Macher has become reasonably well-known in the community and his candidacy has the blessing of popular Republican Mayor Noel Taylor.

Still, the GOP ticket is weaker without Garland, and Macher never has held public office of any kind. His political inexperience was prominently displayed back in Trout's Phase I: Macher, an announced GOP candidate, offered himself to council, only three of whose seven members are Republicans, as a replacement to complete Trout's unexpired term.

Against such jockeying, one of Garland's remarks Tuesday stands in particularly poignant contrast. "We are all but custodians of this place who must one day yield to the next generation," he said. "When that day comes, as it comes for me today, we will be judged not on the cleverness of our politics, but on our service to the public good."

Granted, much of politics is a game, and rightly so: The day should be rued when any of the players take themselves too seriously. Granted, too, it's easier for such comments to come from a politician who, at least for this election, is quitting the game.

But Garland's remark is on the money. The point of getting elected to council is not to scratch every individual voter's itch. The point is to exercise your best judgment in building for the long-range future of the city.