Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992 TAG: 9201240287
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
FISHWICK CAMP TAKES LABOR TRACK
John Fishwick, a Roanoke lawyer and son of the former railroad chairman, becomes the third - and probably final - Democrat to enter the race for retiring Rep. Jim Olin's seat. For years in Roanoke, the Fishwick name was synonymous with the railroad. John Fishwick, its boss for 11 years, steered the Norfolk & Western Railway through some of its most tumultuous years.So there was no little irony Thursday night when another Fishwick - John Fishwick - announced his bid for Congress before a banquet room full of railroad union workers and proclaimed himself the candidate of working people.
It was a description the tough-nosed railroad workers were quick to verify.
"People were hesitant 'til we talked to him," said Troy Blankenship, vice general chairman of the United Transportation Union. But Fishwick's relentless, behind-the-scenes courtship of labor over the past few weeks was impressive.
"We had the opportunity to talk to him one-on-one," Blankenship said. "This is not an endorsement, you understand. But he is for the working people. Not just the union people, but the working people of this district."
Candidate announcements often don't mean much. Mom and apple pie. That sort of thing. But sometimes it's possible to read between the lines. There was a lot to read at Fishwick's coming-out party at the Holiday Inn on Franklin Road.
The other two Democrats seeking the nomination - Roanoke lawyer John Edwards and Vinton insurance executive Steve Musselwhite - said many of the same things Fishwick did. Democratic challengers throughout the country this year are talking up the middle-class economic squeeze and blaming Washington politicians for being out of touch with voters.
But unlike Edwards and Musselwhite, Fishwick also talked tough on trade - throwing out one line after another that brought whoops of approval from the raucous, blue-collar cheering section. "If America can organize the whole free world into a coordinated attack on Saddam Hussein, then we ought to be able to organize a fair trade agreement among our so-called allies," he said.
Fishwick also put a spin on what could be his greatest liability in seeking the Democratic nomination - an upbringing that could be depicted as silver spoon.
He neatly omitted mention of Harvard. Instead, he talked about his grandfather, an immigrant from England who ran the cafeteria at the old American Viscose factory in Southeast Roanoke. And he spoke of how his grandfather's hard work afforded his father a chance to go to college and "rise through the ranks" at the railroad.
"My family is the product of the American Dream," Fishwick said. "My parents gave to me the opportunity to have a better life than they themselves had. . . . But now, I'm afraid, future Virginians might not have that same chance. . . . For the first time in our country's history, the next generation faces a bleaker future than the one that preceded it, and that is wrong."
It's a theme many Democrats will be sounding this election year. But one railroad worker who knows Fishwick well says it's a theme that has special resonance when Fishwick delivers it.
"He's made it on his own," says Tommy Jordan, a railroad foreman and a key Democratic operative. "He probably could have come to Woods, Rogers or one of the other big law firms." Instead, Fishwick started his own firm, working for a spell with only a part-time secretary and a makeshift desk he found at a flea market. "It's just a table nailed together out of rough-sawed wood. I don't even see how he writes on it, to tell you the truth," Jordan says. "I think that says something about him."
In fact, Fishwick's genealogy seems to be bringing him some blue-collar support one might not at first expect. His name is an entree, rather than a barrier, to some railroad workers.
"There were a lot of good contracts and a lot of good labor agreements written when Mr. Fishwick was head of the railroad," Jordan says.
Many former union workers at the now-vacant Hotel Roanoke, where the Fishwick family once lived, also have fond memories. "I knew him from a kid, all the way up," said James Wade, former head of the hotel union. "We raised him up, we did. We have always been close friends."
Fishwick's father was renowned for his organizational ability at the railroad. It's a lesson the son seems to have learned well.
While Edwards and Musselwhite have put together homegrown campaign teams, Fishwick has gone to Washington and imported a staff. Campaign workers tend to be brash by nature, but Fishwick's tend to be brasher than most.
One Botetourt County Democrat said campaign workers called him six times in two days to make sure he would attend Thursday's kick-off; a Roanoke Democrat was called five times. That kind of high pressure from strangers can backfire. Fishwick workers called one county chairman to invite him to a breakfast - that the chairman himself was organizing.
For a glimpse of how Fishwick intends to wrest the nomination, though, one need only have dropped by another meeting, one Salem Democrats held Saturday. A scant 15 people turned out at the musty Salem Masonic Lodge No. 120 to re-elect party officers, but the three candidates were there to woo them, anyway.
Fishwick, though, also had an aide in tow, who took down everyone's name, address and phone number - information quickly entered into a computer that will zap out direct-mail fliers to potential supporters, part of the high-tech, big-money campaign he intends to run.
"If I were Musselwhite or Edwards," Jordan says, "I'd be worried about the organization he has."
\ Candidate Profile
6th Congressional district
John Fishwick
Announced Thursday he's seeking the Democratic nomination
\ Age: 34
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Roanoke
Hometown: Salem
Education: Harvard University; Washington and Lee Law School
Political: Chairman of Total Action Against Poverty's task force studying poverty. Also serves on TAP's board of directors.
Family: Wife, Jeannie, is director of admisssions at North Cross School. No children.
Keywords:
PROFILE, POLITICS