Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250034
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In our view, Whitehead would make the better legislator and policy-maker.
Not that the incumbent is the ineffectual Dudley Do-Nothing that Democrats would like to portray. He is credited, for example, with securing state money from a governor's economic-development fund to help induce Fleetwood Homes to expand its manufactured-housing plant in Rocky Mount rather than move elsewhere.
Nor is Dudley a total clone of Gov. George Allen. Like all Democratic and many Republican legislative candidates across the state, Dudley has put himself at odds with the administration's position by signing a statement of support for increased funding of Virginia's colleges and universities in the 1996-98 budget.
On the whole, though, Dudley has been a reliable vote for the governor's unreliable legislative agenda.
Whitehead, by contrast, is a pragmatically conservative Democrat who seems to prize long-term fiscal prudence over shortsighted measures driven by ideological zeal or political considerations of the moment.
Indeed, Whitehead says, he was propelled into the race in part because of his opposition to the governor's proposed budget amendments early this year. The amendments would have slashed previously approved appropriations for higher education, public schools, Virginia Tech extension and community mental-health services. Though the cuts were successfully resisted by the assembly's thin Democratic majorities (with help from some Republicans), Whitehead fears - with reason - what the governor might do to undermine Virginia's reputation as a well-managed state if a more compliant legislature is elected.
We have a big problem with one aspect of Whitehead's public life: his defense of the tobacco industry. He is founder and chairman of Concerned Friends of Tobacco, a Pittsylvania-based political-action committee. The General Assembly hardly needs more lawmakers in the cigarette industry's pocket. Support of tobacco, though, is not an issue in the tobacco-growing 9th, which consists of Floyd and most of Franklin counties, plus portions of Pittsylvania and Bedford counties.
More impressive is the fact that for six of his eight years on the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors during the 1980s, the other supervisors elected him chairman. In 1992, Whitehead was called in to be interim county administrator for a few months until a permanent administrator could be recruited and hired.
Whitehead is also founder, past chairman and current treasurer of the Pittsylvania Economic Development Organization. His work since the 1970s to improve community-based mental-health services includes a stint as board chairman of the Pittsylvania-Halifax-Danville Area Mental Hygiene Clinic.
Whitehead's wealth of hands-on experience in local-government and civic affairs adds credibility to his criticism of gubernatorial excess, and makes him a good choice for the General Assembly.
Keywords:
POLITICS ENDORSEMENT
by CNB