Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 23, 1995 TAG: 9510230159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One was talking up support for Allen's agenda. The other was emphasizing independence from the governor.
No surprises there - except which candidate was saying which.
It was Cranwell - "the chief obstructionist," as Allen and the Republicans prefer to call him - who lately has been sharpening his rhetoric about the times he's supported the governor.
Republicans have come up with a list of selected bills to make the case that Cranwell voted against Allen 95 percent of the time. But Cranwell in recent weeks has emphasized how he backed Allen on three "major initiatives of the Allen administration" - settling the federal retirees' pension suit, abolishing parole and revamping the state's welfare rules, although they had somewhat different notions of how to do each one of those.
Now, Cranwell has started saying he saved those Allen proposals from going down to defeat each time - by personally intervening in the pension negotiations, by tinkering with the parole legislation to cut prison costs, and by rallying last-minute Democratic support in the legislature for Allen's welfare plan.
(Republicans, of course, say Cranwell and the Democrats had an "11th-hour conversion" on Allen's welfare plan when they saw how politically popular it was and how determined the governor was to veto the Democratic version.)
"That does not sound like an obstructionist to me," Cranwell said over the weekend as he responded to a quartet of out-of-town Republican legislators who were in Vinton to campaign for his defeat.
"Now, let's talk about where the governor and I got off on the wrong foot. It was his tax cut and rather draconian budget cuts in a state that has the second-lowest tax burden in the country. That plan was ill-conceived. But let's look at it in terms of baseball. If Ted Williams batted .750, he'd be in the Hall of Fame 10 times over. The truth is, on 75 percent of the governor's major initiatives, he had significant help from me in crafting that and getting it through the General Assembly.
"What has happened is being with the governor on major issues three out of four times isn't good enough. They want blind loyalty."
It was loyalty, meanwhile, that Averill was talking about, but for one of the few times in the campaign, she appeared to be putting some distance, however slight, between herself and Allen.
"My opponent constantly refers to my loyalty oath to the governor," Averill told a rally, as she held aloft a copy of the Republican campaign "pledge," the Virginia version of the GOP's Contract With America. "I don't consider it a loyalty oath. It is a pledge to the people of Virginia and to the voters of the 14th District. It's that I will represent your views. It just so happens that philosophy is in keeping with the governor."
One of her supporters also tried to counter the Democratic attempt to portray Republican candidates as "clones" of Allen.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, joked that he'd taken skin and blood samples from the GOP legislators who came to help Averill. "All of them have considerably different DNA from the governor," Griffith said, before adding, more seriously, "and we don't agree on every issue."
\ Citizen calendar
Want to hear the candidates? Here are some opportunities this week:
Roanoke: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Temple Emanuel. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Many of the Roanoke Valley's General Assembly candidates have been invited.
Vinton: Wednesday, 7 p.m., William Byrd High School auditorium. A debate between Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and Republican challenger Trixie Averill. The debate will be broadcast live over WVTF-FM, 89.1.
Don Huffman backs Jim Miller
The great thing about Virginia is there's always an election going on. Once the 1995 legislative races are over, the 1996 contest for the U.S. Senate will gear up - if it hasn't already.
Last week, former state Republican Party Chairman Don Huffman of Roanoke endorsed former Reagan administration budget director Jim Miller, who is challenging incumbent John Warner for the GOP nomination.
Many Republicans are upset at Warner for not backing GOP nominee Oliver North for the Senate last year - a point Huffman noted in his endorsement.
"Jim is a team player who can unite Virginia Republicans," said Huffman, a key figure among Virginia conservatives.
Huffman also will become a co-chairman of Miller's campaign, a clear signal to conservative activists that Miller, who opposed North for the 1994 nomination, is acceptable to the leadership of the party's right wing.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB