Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992 TAG: 9201280075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN POLITICS, THE FUTURE IS THE PAST
Consider for a moment the thick scrapbook of Jim Trout.He ran for a seat in the House of Delegates in 1965. He lost.
Ran for Roanoke City Council in '66. He lost.
Ran for council in '68. Won.
Ran for council in '72. Won.
Ran for mayor in '76. Lost.
Ran for council in '78. Lost.
Ran for council in '80. Lost.
Ran for council in '82. Won.
Ran for mayor in '84. Lost.
Ran for council in '86. Won.
Ran for council in '90. Lost.
Runs for council in '92. Fate unknown.
Trout, hide thick as a rhino's, is hardly alone.
Politicians, like boxers, are finding it difficult to hang up the gloves. The lure of one more round has them stepping between the ropes for another whack at the electorate.
Dave Lisk knows. Now semi-retired, Lisk served on Roanoke City Council from 1966 until 1976. Lisk believes in the democratic ideal - citizens should serve and then yield their seats. Makes for better government, he says.
But this year, with three council seats and the mayor's throne cast to the voters, Lisk's phone rang. Someone wanted to know if he would be interested in running again.
"I said no," said Lisk.
Other than that, Roanoke voters could face a ballot this year that has them scratching their heads, wondering whether they'd been transported back to 1960. Or 1970. Or 1980.
Forget the new ideas and fresh faces. You get the feeling that if the right candidate could be found in the graveyard, he'd be exhumed, stood upright with 15,000 volts and walked through a campaign clambake.
The future is now, baby, and the political future is the political past. An old fleet of politicians is rolling out of dry dock.
There's Trout.
There's Robert Garland. He's been mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate. He was a City Council member from 1962 until 1990 - with a four-year furlough in the '60s.
There's Willis Anderson, another maybe-mayor. Anderson was a City Council member from '58 to '62, mayor for a couple of years, state delegate from '63 to '71.
The syndrome extends beyond the Roanoke Valley.
Remember U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, the Southwest Virginia wundercongressman? He wrested his office in 1982 from William C. Wampler, a Republican.
Wampler is thinking about a comeback. Boucher vs. Wampler II.
Jerry Brown wants to be president. Again.
Politics have the distinct odor of mothballs this season.
So praise men like Hampton Thomas and Frank Perkinson.
Thomas was a Roanoke council member from 1969 to 1982. He will not run this year.
"You reach a point of saturation," said Thomas. "Thirteen years was mine."
Perkinson moved from the jurisdiction, to Franklin County, after he served four years on council. He lives now in Roanoke County, making him one of a handful of former council members not mulling a comeback.
When he lost, in 1970, Perkinson decided he'd had enough.
He was beaten by an upstart Republican - Noel Taylor.