Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 15, 1992 TAG: 9202150250
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SIZE OF CROWD CRUCIAL FOR WOULD-BE MAYORS
Roanoke's next mayor could be chosen Feb. 22 - more than two months before the City Council election on May 5.Fewer than 2,400 voters could choose Noel Taylor's successor. It might be as low as 750 - or even lower.
This is the first time in 16 years that the outcome of a contest for mayor has been in doubt. Taylor, a Republican who is retiring, has been challenged only once since 1976, and that contest was never close.
The winner of the fight for the Democratic Party nomination between Vice Mayor Howard Musser and City Councilman David Bowers will be favored to win the May election.
The GOP has no announced candidate, although Willis Anderson, a former mayor, is considering seeking the party's nomination.
Anderson would be an underdog, based on recent council elections. Democrats have won most of the contested races.
Both parties will select their mayoral candidates at mass meetings - the Democrats on Feb. 22 and the GOP on Feb. 25.
A mass meeting is like a caucus. The object for candidates is to get their supporters to attend.
They have been called "politics in the raw." The rules are simple and straightforward: It's a matter of bodies.
Any registered voter may attend if he or she agrees to support the parties' candidates.
George McMillan, acting chairman of the city Democratic Committee, said some party leaders believe Bowers and Musser will each try to get at least 1,200 supporters to the party's meeting.
The meeting will start at 11 a.m. at the auditorium at William Fleming High School. Registration starts at 9 a.m.
Neither candidate would be precise about the number of supporters they hope to turn out because they don't want to tip their hands to their opponent.
But both candidates were busy making phone calls and writing letters.
"I'm finding that a lot of the people don't understand the mass-meeting process," Bowers said.
"I tell people that it's like a basketball tournament. You have to win the semifinals to get into the finals. If you want to vote for me on May 5, you've got to be there and vote for me on Feb. 22."
Musser said he, too, has found that many voters do not understand the process.
If the high predictions are accurate, there will be an overflow crowd because the Fleming auditorium seats 750.
But McMillan doubts the turnout will be as large as some party leaders are predicting. "It is easy for a candidate to say he'll have [a lot of] people, but the question is how many of them will actually show up."
McMillan doesn't expect more than 750 to attend, but he is prepared for a bigger crowd. If there is an overflow, they'll use the school's cafeteria.
Virginia does not require voters to register by party, so there is no way for Democratic officials to verify that all who attend are Democrats, McMillan said.
The party will have a credentials committee to ensure that the participants are properly registered. There is no fee for participants.
At the start of the meeting, the Democrats will adopt rules to regulate the conduct of the session, including the time allocated for nominating and seconding speeches.
All candidates for mayor and the council seats are required to pre-file with party officials by today and pay a $200 fee. The money will be used to help pay the cost for renting the auditorium, printing the ballots and other expenses. Only those candidates who pre-file can be nominated.
Mass meetings are one of three methods the parties could have used. They also could have chosen candidates by a primary election or at a convention.
If the parties had wanted a primary, state election laws require them to have made that decision by Dec. 4.
William Fralin, vice chairman of the city Republican Committee, said the GOP never seriously considered a primary because it has traditionally chosen its council candidates by a mass meeting or convention.
Although the GOP has selected a date for its meeting, it has not scheduled a time or place.
4.
McMillan said no Democratic candidates - for mayor or council - requested a primary.
Neither Bowers nor Musser could have forced a primary because they are not incumbent mayors, McMillan said. But the party's executive committee could have scheduled one.
As an incumbent councilman seeking re-election, Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. could have requested a primary, but he did not.
The last Democratic primary election for council in Roanoke was in the mid-1960s. "Since then, we've had a tradition of selecting our candidates for council by mass meetings," McMillan said.
The Democrats dropped the primary more than two decades ago because "our candidates were killing each other with their campaigns. The Republicans were happy that the Democrats were bad-mouthing each other," he said.
In recent years, the mass meetings have been placid affairs featuring little competition.
Usually fewer than 200 voters have turned out for Democratic mass meetings. The last time the Democrats nominated a candidate for mayor was in 1972; they never nominated a candidate to oppose Taylor after he won his first four-year term in 1976.
Conventions - the other option for selecting candidates - involve the selection of delegates at mass meetings, who then attend the convention and vote for the candidates they support. This procedure requires some people to attend two meetings.
Roanoke is not alone. No city or town in Virginia is holding a primary this year to select candidates for mayor and council seats, according to a spokesman for the state Board of Elections.