Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201260116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DEMOCRATIC TRIO BRACES FOR BATTLE TO CONGRESS
DEMOCRATS FACE a wrenching decision in picking a successor to retiring Rep. Jim Olin. Their candidates - John Edwards, John Fishwick and Steve Musselwhite - appear evenly matched, in both popularity and positions. So the outcome could turn on factors that have little to do with politics.\ Peggy Shenberger licked stamps at Jim Olin's dining room table during his first campaign for Congress a decade ago. "I worked very hard for Jim Olin," the Salem retiree remembers.
She'll have to do something harder before 6th District Democrats can elect Olin's successor this fall, though: figure out who to support for her party's nomination.
"John Edwards is a Lutheran and I'm a Lutheran. That's one part," Shenberger says. "Mr. Fishwick - I like very much his mother's art. So you can see, this is very personal. I've never had a decision like this to make."
She's not alone.
The Republican nomination for Congress could be a straightforward affair: Roanoke lawyer Bob Goodlatte appears to have lined up just about every Republican worker of note in the Roanoke Valley, which accounts for about 40 percent of the district's population. That hometown heft alone might be enough to carry him past former Rockingham County Del. Phoebe Orebaugh.
But Democrats are off to a wild scramble - with three strong candidates, each with longstanding ties in the Roanoke Valley, yet largely unknown and untested in the rest of a district that runs east to Lynchburg and north to Harrisonburg.
This will be a campaign like Western Virginia has perhaps never seen - perhaps the hottest in the state this year. Each candidate has already hired big staffs and big-name consultants. Each has already lined up powerful names from Roanoke's business community to raise money.
For Roanoke lawyer John Edwards, that includes clothier Lawrence Davidson and food broker Sam McNeil. For Roanoke lawyer John Fishwick, that includes hotel executive Sam Krisch and car dealer George Logan. For Vinton insurance executive Steve Musselwhite, that includes retired Shenandoah Life Chairman Frank Clement. Some Democrats believe their three candidates together might spend $250,000 even before the nomination is settled.
If there's a leader of the pack, most Democrats haven't been able to figure out yet who it is. When Democrats meet April 11 and 13 to select convention delegates pledged to one candidate or another, "the spread will probably be 40 percent, 30 percent, 30 percent, that's how close it is," says Salem Democratic Chairman Ross Hart.
This shows all the signs of a classic battle that could wind up taking multiple ballots to decide when 6th District Democrats convene May 9 in Lynchburg.
\ `He hit me early'
\ Differences among the three Democrats are difficult to discern. Edwards and Fishwick give the same basic stump speech, sounding what's likely to be the Democratic message throughout the country this fall: Republican economic policies have squeezed the middle class. Musselwhite touts his business background and crafts a more anti-Washington pitch.
Musselwhite may be marginally more centrist. He says he's personally opposed to abortion, but believes government shouldn't interfere in a woman's decision. Edwards and Fishwick say simply the latter.
Other than that, "I don't know that there's a great deal of difference, from what I understand on the major issues," says Rockbridge County Circuit Court Clerk Bruce Patterson, who's heard from all three candidates but is backing Fishwick.
That makes the choice Democratic activists will have to make a difficult one.
"We have three great people running, and I hate the idea we're going to have to make a choice," Shenberger says. "I'm really going to have a horrible time."
"In the Roanoke Valley, where all three are known and respected as widely as they are, it may well boil down to a personal, non-political consideration," says Hart, who's staying uncommitted. "In the rest of the district, the members of the party won't have had as much contact with the various candidates. And their analysis of the candidate's respective traits and abilities, in the words of a famous Vulcan, will be fascinating."
All three candidates are quick to drop names of prominent Democrats gravitating to their camp. For Edwards, that's Lynchburg Mayor M.W. Thornhill. For Fishwick, that's Bath County Del. Creigh Deeds. For Musselwhite, that's Lynchburg state Sen. Elliot Schewel.
Just how these out-of-town Democrats make up their minds offers some insight into the still-embryonic campaign:
Edwards, the party's 6th District chairman, has the best ties to party regulars. That's how he won Thornhill's backing. "I've known him a long time and I've worked with him," Thornhill says.
The intense, business-like Fishwick has tried to match that with relentlessness. "John came to see me first, which meant a lot to me and he followed up, called me several times and wrote me several times," says Patterson, the Rockbridge clerk. "He hit me early and he hit me often."
Musselwhite, who has the fewest connections to party regulars, has hired the campaign manager with the most ties to the district - Susan Swecker, a former state party executive director from Highland County - and tried to showcase his easy personality. "He's impressive personally and in the organization he's lined up because he looks like a winner," says Staunton Clerk Tom Roberts. "After he was here, I got some feedback that he was charismatic."
\ Voters are mysterious
\ The three constituencies that usually count the most in a Democratic nomination fight are unions, teachers and blacks - the first two because they're well-organized with mailing lists and phone banks, the latter because ministers and prominent civic leaders often can use their stature to turn out impressive numbers at mass meetings.
So far, there's no clear front-runner, either, although Edwards and Fishwick are the best-known because of their party and legal work.
Edwards opened his campaign with endorsements by two prominent blacks: Lynchburg's Thornhill and Roanoke Democratic Chairman Carl Tinsley.
But Roanoke funeral home operator Larry Hamlar will be Fishwick's treasurer. Also, Fishwick and his wife attended services Sunday at the High Street Baptist Church, Roanoke's largest black congregation and a key stop for any politician seeking black votes in Roanoke. Fishwick also has an "in" to Roanoke's black community through many former workers at the now-vacant Hotel Roanoke, where the Fishwick family once lived. "I knew him from a kid, all the way up," says James Wade, former head of the hotel union. "We raised him up, we did. We have always been close friends."
Musselwhite, meanwhile, cites the support of Gil Cobb, a retired Lynchburg educator.
Labor initially was seen tilted toward Edwards, but there are signs that Fishwick is trying to out-hustle the union vote from him. The night before he announced his candidacy, Edwards phoned Roanoke Valley union leaders to let them know. Fishwick countered by inviting about 30 labor leaders to his home Monday night. The AFL-CIO endorsement, which might come in February, could prove pivotal for all three campaigns.
Teachers also are divided.
"Steve Musselwhite enjoys considerable credibility with Roanoke County teachers because he's president of the Roanoke County Education Foundation," says Gary Waldo, a teachers' lobbyist in Roanoke. "John Fishwick has done legal work representing teachers for the Virginia Education Association, and John Edwards knows a lot of our people through our years of involvement in mass meetings. That makes it interesting."
Much may depend on each campaign's organization. Edwards and Musselwhite are relying mostly on homegrown workers, some of whom must work day jobs before turning to politicking with their neighbors by night. Fishwick has a high-powered staff of full-timers he's imported, but they know little about the district.
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 pressure from strangers can backfire, though. Fishwick workers called the party chairman in one county to invite him to a breakfast - that the chairman himself was organizing.
"It's hard to gauge what a staff can or cannot do," says Tommy Jordan, a key Democratic activist from Buchanan and a longtime friend of Fishwick's. However, "talking about crackerjack staffs, it looks like Fishwick might walk away with the prize in the box."
Yet Swecker, Musselwhite's campaign director, seems to be corralling some important endorsements for her candidate in Staunton and Augusta County, mostly on the strength of her own recommendation.
For all of the scientific resources that will be brought to bear in the campaign, though, voters still make up their minds in mysterious ways.
After weighing Edwards' religion and the artwork of Fishwick's late mother, Shenberger despairs of reaching a conclusion. "My choice will probably come down to a political choice - which one you think you have the most access to," she says. "I'll have to go home and figure that out."
Keywords:
POLITICS