Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270309
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The prominent state legislator, usually found on center stage in political debates, apparently will be mostly a spectator in the debate on an issue that could shape the Roanoke Valley's future.
The man who has been called the most powerful politician in the valley apparently will not use his influence on the biggest local issue in two decades: government consolidation.
A skilled political strategist, Cranwell apparently will let others plot the strategies for the pro- and anti-merger campaigns for the November referendum on the plan to combine Roanoke and Roanoke County.
And Cranwell, who has won praise from valley business leaders in recent years for his strong support for economic growth, finds himself at odds with many of the same business leaders on the consolidation issue.
The Vinton Democrat recently disclosed that he will vote against the merger plan.
But Cranwell, a lawyer who has represented the county in the House of Delegates for nearly two decades, apparently will not have an active role in the anti-merger movement. He declined to be interviewed for this story, but political friends and county officials expect him to keep a low profile in the campaign.
Cranwell told a Mason Cove audience it would have been easier politically for him to have dodged questions this year about his position on consolidation. "But I've been asked 15 million times, and I'm going to be asked 15 million more times," he said.
Cranwell could probably assure the defeat of the plan if he wanted to, some county officials say. "He has enough influence to kill it. He's widely respected," said Supervisor Steve McGraw.
"If he mounts a zealous, personal campaign, watch out," said Supervisor Bob Johnson, who has worked with Cranwell in many campaigns. But Johnson, who helped negotiate the merger agreement, does not think that will happen.
Although Cranwell apparently felt it was time to take a stand, he also apparently did not want a lot of attention from the media. He disclosed it at a neighborhood meeting on a Monday night in a rural area attended by only a dozen citizens and one reporter.
"If he wanted to really oppose consolidation, he could have called a news conference in downtown Roanoke, arranged to have had five to six hundred consolidation opponents there and made a big emotional scene out of it," Johnson said.
Even if Cranwell does not campaign against merger, the question remains: How much influence will he have simply because he has disclosed his personal feelings?
And a related question is: How much power does he really have in the valley?
Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said Cranwell's opposition will sway some voters, but he doubts the referendum will be decided by influential politicians or businessmen.
Woodrum favors consolidation and plans to speak out on the issue. But "this is going to be a different kind of election," he said. "We don't have a candidate. We have a concept, and I think voters are going to decide it on the basis of what is best for them."
Vinton Mayor Charles Hill was not surprised by Cranwell's position.
"He is highly thought of, and I think it will have an effect on some people," particularly in the eastern part of the county, where there is strong anti-consolidation sentiment, Hill said.
Cranwell and his opinions are viewed less reverently by Roanoke officials.
"He may have influence in Richmond, but I am not sure he has that much power in the valley," said Councilman Howard Musser.
"I look upon him as just another citizen who is expressing his opinion," said Musser, who helped negotiate the plan. "I hope he keeps a low profile, because he has not been involved with it."
For a variety of reasons, most council members do not consider Cranwell to be the city's friend.
They have not forgotten that he was the chief architect of legislation a decade ago that prohibited Roanoke and other major cities in Virginia from expanding their boundaries by annexation.
And they remember the strong-arm tactics he used three years ago in another dispute. Cranwell forced the city to agree to create a city-county commission to run the Roanoke Regional Airport in order to get more than $10 million in state money for a new terminal and other facilities. Previously, the airport was run by the city.
Cranwell's stock with Roanoke County officials rose after he wrote the 1979 legislation that gave Roanoke County and most other urban counties in the state immunity from annexation initiated by cities. Cranwell has since become a hero to counties for his efforts to end bitter annexation fights.
But he has been coolly received by many city officials at Virginia Municipal League conventions in recent years. He has also been criticized for his role as a member of the Grayson Commission, which fashioned proposals that would encourage cities of less than 125,000 to give up their charters and become part of surrounding counties.
Business leaders who support consolidation hope Cranwell, who has been ranked as the second-most effective member in the House of Delegates, behind Speaker A.L. Philpott, stays out of the campaign.
"He could have done us a lot more damage than he has," said Warner Dalhouse, chairman of Dominion Bankshares Corp. "He could have come out with all guns blazing, but he did not."
Dalhouse said many business leaders are praying that Cranwell "does not get out on the hustings, make speeches and try to influence voters."
Consolidation advocates have a theory about why Cranwell took the anti-merger stand.
"He is a very successful politician for many reasons - and one of them is that he never forgets who his constituents are," Dalhouse said. Polls have shown strong anti-consolidation sentiment in Vinton and east county, where Cranwell first got into politics as Vinton town attorney.
"I think he made a politically pragmatic assessment of the views of his constituents, but I don't mean to imply any duplicity in that," Dalhouse said.
Hill, who has not taken a public stand on consolidation, said he believes voters in Vinton and east county would reject merger if a referendum were held now.
No business leaders are breaking their ties with Cranwell because of his stand on consolidation, Dalhouse said, even though they believe merger will help stimulate economic growth.
In an interview last year before the city and county began drafting the plan, Cranwell hinted strongly that he might oppose merger. Cranwell said then that he did not see consolidation as crucial to the valley's economic development, although he advocates more growth.
"The big problem in economic development is to make sure you have the appropriate infrastructure to support the kind of growth you want," Cranwell said at the time. "We've got cooperation in those things that are critical to growth and attracting new industries."
The county is under less pressure to consolidate now than in 1969, when merger was last on the ballot, because it no longer faces the threat of annexation, Cranwell said. At that time, there were six pending annexation cases, including one by Roanoke to annex the entire county.
Roanoke voters approved the 1969 plan by a wide margin, but voters in the county narrowly rejected it and Vinton voters defeated it by a 2-1 ratio. That plan would have combined Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton into one city.
Coincidentally, Cranwell, then a 27-year-old lawyer for the Town of Vinton, helped draft the 1969 consolidation proposal.
The current plan would merge the city and county into the hybrid form of government called Roanoke Metropolitan Government. Vinton would continue to exist as a town within the larger entity.
Cranwell said he did not mind telling people he would vote against merger. But he recently told Woodrum and Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, that consolidation was, as he put it in his Mason Cove speech, "a local issue [and] we shouldn't take leadership roles."
That fits in with the public image Cranwell has created locally. Despite his reputation as one of the state's most influential politicians, Cranwell generally shuns the role of political boss in the valley. He tends to use his influence judiciously.
Sometimes, he gets what he wants, but not always.
He used his influence to get his nephew the Democratic nomination for Roanoke County commonwealth's attorney in 1987, but he could not get Dean Cranwell elected despite hard work, the family name, money and political connections. His influence could not overcome his nephew's political liabilities, the main one being inexperience.
In recent years, Cranwell helped get $11 million in state money for the proposed Explore Park. But he could not prevent dissent in the valley over Explore, particularly the harsh criticism by state Sen. Granger Macfarlane, D-Roanoke.
Cranwell criticized Roanoke City Council for not supporting Explore more strongly during the early planning for the project, but council members did not change their positions.
County officials say Cranwell does not meddle in local affairs. "He has never asked any favors, never asked us to do anything for him or tried to call in any due bills," Johnson said. "He does not operate that way."
On the other hand, the county does not hesitate to go to Cranwell when it needs something done in the General Assembly. His influence might be why it was the first county in the state to get a charter and be allowed to impose a meals tax.
During the fight over a permit for the Spring Hollow reservoir project, Cranwell set up a meeting with then-Gov. Gerald Baliles' chief of staff and other state officials that ultimately led to a compromise on the issue.
And Cranwell was a key player in the state school funding compromise two years ago, when it looked as if Roanoke County and other Western Virginia localities might lose a lot of state money.
When interviewed for this story, Johnson disclosed that Cranwell pressured Roanoke on creating the airport commission because he was asked to do so by the county Board of Supervisors.
"We asked him to do that because the negotiations had broken down as a result of undue demands by the city," Johnson said. "We thought a regional commission was the best approach, and he was just responding to his constituents. I asked him to fire that shot."
The airport controversy left some city officials bitter at the Vinton legislator. "I perceived it as direct blackmail. We did not need the county, but we did need the state money," Musser said.
County supervisors go to Cranwell for advice whenever they have questions about state law and its impact on local government. But it all is done in a low-key manner, as illustrated by one recent event at a public meeting:
The supervisors were to give Cranwell a certificate of thanks for his work in getting the state legislature to approve funding for a county police department. While County Administrator Elmer Hodge was introducing him, Cranwell was sitting in the back of the room reading a newspaper. Then he walked up, picked up the certificate and left.
Staff writer Mark Layman contributed information to this story.
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