THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040274
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
If you've heard it once, you likely have heard it scores of times: ``I'm so disgusted with it all that I think I'll just stay home!''
That may be the temptation, considering the tone of the Senate campaign being waged by Chuck Robb and Ollie North. Resist it. It's cowardly.
We have three Senate candidate choices and two House candidate choices. None may meet every requirement of our ideal candidate, but elections often are that way. That places with us voters the burden of deciding who can best represent our area in Washington.
Pushing the choice off on others simply empowers them to make decisions for us - one of the things many voters say they dislike most about government bureaucracy. Don't do it. It's hypocritical.
If you haven't studied the candidates' positions on issues, particularly those most affecting you, resolve to do it between now and Tuesday. Cast informed ballots, not votes based on a 30-second commercials, the word of some special-interest group or even necessarily the idea of teaching somebody a lesson.
There's more to a candidate than where he stands on hot-button topics such as abortion, gun control and homosexuals in the military. Look at the total package, then go behind the rhetoric and dig for substantive answers on just how he'll deliver and at what price.
There's more, too, than past transgressions: whether he was unfaithful to his wife or lied to Congress. What's the candidate like now, and how will that affect his role as a senator?
For all the lofty talk of participating in democracy and fulfilling the duties of citizenship, electing a senator or representative comes down to a very selfish matter. It says, in essence, ``I know what kind of leader I want, and I'm willing to invest in that conviction the only thing I have that counts now, my vote.''
That leaves no room for childishness that says, ``I don't like the choices I'm given, so I'll just not play.'' Life is all about choices, even when we don't like the menu.
Nearly 51,000 Western Tidewater residents are eligible to vote Tuesday. Let's make it a no-excuse day - or at least an almost-no-excuse day - for 24,136 registered voters in Suffolk, 4,059 in Franklin, 13,454 in Isle of Wight County and 7,971 in Southampton County.
Besides the Senate and House races and a statewide referendum on constitutional changes, voters in some areas have local topics:
Suffolk: Soil and water conservation directors. There are two positions, two candidates.
Isle of Wight County: Meal tax referendum and supervisor from the Windsor District. Candidates are Lud Lorenzo ``Ren'' Spivey and James R. Hager.
Southampton County: Commissioner of Revenue. Candidates are John R. Harrup, Jeanette S. Everett, David A. Price Sr. and Linda N. Vick.
As a radio commentator said the other day, cynicism is a growth industry in this country. It's a shame, for there's no useful payoff.
Don't contribute to it Tuesday. Have your say. Vote! MEMO: Comment? Call 446-2494.
by CNB