Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100395
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VETERAN LAWMAKER JOINS HOUSE RACE
FORMER Rockingham Del. Phoebe Orebaugh on Thursday became the second Republican to enter the race for retiring Rep. Jim Olin's seat.\ It took an act of God to beat Phoebe Orebaugh the first time - when the great Election Day flood of 1985 inundated her hometown of Broadway and kept enough voters away from the polls to hand the election to a Democrat whose supporters lived on higher ground.
Two years later, with better weather, the feisty high school teacher came back to reclaim her House of Delegates seat.
It took an act of the General Assembly to beat Orebaugh the second time - when a Democratic redistricting plan last year managed to rejiggle the lines so that she just happened to wind up in a district with another Republican legislator from three counties away.
Her response to being squeezed out of the seat she held for seven years was typical - she decided to take on Rep. Jim Olin. In fact, she's even a bit disappointed that the five-term Democrat has decided to retire from Congress. She says she looked forward to challenging his vote against the Persian Gulf War.
Orebaugh's tenacity is legendary. In Richmond, she was famous for her one-woman crusade to allow terminally ill cancer patients to use heroin to ease their pain - a cause she embraced after watching her brother-in-law die a "horrible death, a death in which he suffered beyond anything you can imagine."
The bill was given no chance of passage, but she relentlessly lobbied legislators with her personal story. "As the bill went through," she said, "it gained more and more support until when it got to the Senate, the senators were practically falling over themselves to support it and it passed 39 to 1."
The use of heroin can't go into effect, though, until Congress gives the OK. "I sort of feel if I was there to push it I might have the same success I had in the Virginia General Assembly," she said. "After all, the Virginia legislature is the most conservative on the face of this Earth and if I were able to get it through that conservative legislature, I feel I could also get it through Congress."
She jokes that her brother compares her to a bulldog. Even with Olin retiring, Orebaugh will need that bulldog tenacity.
Roanoke lawyer Bob Goodlatte already is seeking the Republican nomination, and appears to have lined up almost every GOP leader of note in the Roanoke Valley - home to 40 percent of the district's population.
Politically speaking, Orebaugh hails from what's usually considered the wrong end of the district. It's a point she was eager to dispute Thursday when she kicked off her campaign with announcements in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Staunton and Harrisonburg.
While the Roanoke Valley's population has stayed flat during the 1980s, the Shenandoah Valley's population has surged - by a whopping 16 percent in her base in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
Now, the Shenandoah Valley accounts for 32 percent of the district's population. That, she says, gives her a solid base to build on if she can mobilize the hometown support she's counting on there. "Actually, Lynchburg is going to be the key," she said. "It's now the swing."
Orebaugh also hopes her gender will work to her advantage. "I think this may be a particularly good time for women to run," she said, "because of all the scandals Congress has been in, since [women] are generally perceived to be honest and trustworthy - I certainly am."
There's also her personality. "She comes across as a real down-home person," said Harrisonburg Republican Chairman Blaine Grim, who's heading Orebaugh's campaign. "People are tired of slick, professional politicians. I think she'll do better than some people give her credit for."
Many 6th District Republicans are haunted by their 1982 convention - when Ray Garland of Roanoke entered as the front-runner, but disgruntled conservatives ganged up and nominated Kevin Miller of Harrisonburg instead. Miller went on to lose to Olin. Miller's lack of name recognition hurt him in the Roanoke Valley, but so did the bad blood among Republicans.
This time, Republicans are going out of their way - literally - to avoid that kind of bickering. Orebaugh joined Goodlatte when he announced in Harrisonburg last month. Thursday, he showed up at her announcement in Roanoke's City Council chambers. "We're going to keep this friendly and Phoebe is a friend," he said.
Keywords:
POLITICS