Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992 TAG: 9202260298
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SUBDUED REPUBLICANS LOOKING FOR SOME FIRE
As Republican loyalists filed quietly into Roanoke City Council chambers to nominate a candidate for mayor Tuesday night, party Chairman Gary Bowman huddled with Vice Chairman William Fralin in a corner and whispered, almost, but not quite, out of earshot: "We need to make this a rally."Perhaps this is the dime's worth of difference between the two parties:
The Democrats had a wide-open carnival Saturday, with a strolling minstrel, an Uncle Sam impersonator and union workers brought in by the busload - nearly 1,700 voters in all, choosing between David Bowers and Howard Musser to run for mayor.
The Republican mass meeting was a much more subdued affair, with the sharpest disagreement coming when two old hands stepped into the lobby to debate the finer points of Robert's Rules of Order - just why did the 69 voters present need to elect both a temporary chairman and a permanent chairman?
The difference between the two parties' mayoral candidates is equally clear: When Bowers made his first appearance at the Democratic meeting, he pumped his fist in the air and elicited howls of approval from his backers. But when Willis "Wick" Anderson slipped into the room where he was about to be nominated for mayor, with his overcoat slung over his arm, he was barely noticed.
Yet the Republicans professed excitement over Anderson's candidacy, in their own Republican sort of way.
There are two models in Roanoke for a business-backed Republican running against an anti-establishment Democrat.
One is not a happy one for Republicans to contemplate. In 1987, retired hospital administrator William "Ham" Flannagan challenged feisty state Sen. Granger Macfarlane. Macfarlane positioned himself as standing up against "the big boys" and won in a walk.
So last year, computer salesman Brandon Bell was given virtually no chance to unseat Macfarlane. But Bell took the fight to Macfarlane, day after day, and eventually pulled off an upset that still reverberates in Roanoke Republican circles.
"It's amazing what one victory can do for a city party," said Tim Phillips, a Richmond-based consultant who worked for Bell's campaign and is now in Roanoke heading Bob Goodlatte's congressional bid. "All these people think they can win."
"This will be like Brandon's election," Bowman predicted. It was a prophecy echoed by other Republican leaders, who foresee Anderson attempting to expose Bowers' working-class pitch as a fraud while a young corps of volunteers takes his message door-to-door.
The only question Republicans have is whether the low-key Anderson will be willing and able to hammer Bowers the way Bell slugged it out with Macfarlane.
"We're going to try to get Wick fired up, and we're going to try to get some of the young people involved in Brandon's campaign fired up," said Roanoke lawyer Chip Magee.
Bowman even suggested that Anderson's reluctance to run might be a selling point against the high-profile Bowers:
"The fact that we had to beg and plead with him to run shows his only motivation is he desires good government for the city. Bowers has different motives, and that's the choice the votes face on May 5. . . . David Bowers' primary interest is self-aggrandizement."
Yet the one thing that seems certain to get Republicans fired up, as Magee calls it, isn't Anderson, but Bowers.
"I've been calling business leaders to raise money for [Councilwoman] Elizabeth Bowles," Magee said, "and they all say, `Yeah, sure, I'll give you $100, but what are we going to do about David Bowers?' The truth is, their questions are about 90 percent `What are we going to do about Bowers?' "
Keywords:
POLITICS