Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 30, 1992 TAG: 9203300041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With the Democratic seat coming open in a district with a Republican heritage - in a state that traditionally goes strong for the Republican candidate for president - the 6th is indeed a natural for GOP attention.
That could mean lots of national money for Republican Bob Goodlatte; in fact, he's already started to make the fund-raising rounds in D.C. "When the PACs look at a new candidate, the first question is: `Does the guy have a chance?' And the best way to see if he has a chance," says former Rep. Caldwell Butler, is to find out whether the national party has targeted the race. If so, "it can mean big bucks."
Be on the lookout, too, for campaign-boosting appearances from Cabinet secretaries, possibly a visit from Vice President Dan Quayle, maybe even a drop-in from President Bush himself, depending on how the presidential race is going.
"The question is timing," Butler says.
Talk of the town
John Fishwick's campaign is the one many Democratic activists are talking about, but the things they're saying aren't always favorable.
The reason: The Fishwick staffers' hard-charging tactics strike some Democrats as harassment. When rival John Edwards made a recent campaign swing through Augusta County, that was about all that many Democratic activists could talk about.
"They have called and called and called," complains Augusta County Treasurer Ellen Maddox. "I told them to please quit calling at work. Then they came by here. I shut the door in their face the other day."
She's now backing Edwards.
Lionel "Rabbit" Moomau, another key activist in Augusta County, complains Fishwick staffers have left maybe 20 messages on his answering machine. "I'm definitely not going for Fishwick," he says. He's leaning toward Edwards.
"I think [Fishwick] has turned a lot of people on and now he's turned a lot of people off," says Harry Dull, an Edwards worker from Staunton, "especially in the northern end of the district," where rural voters expect more gentlemanly campaigning.
Fishwick campaign manager LA Harris says it's no big deal. "With the vigor and intensity of these campaigns, the way we run them, some people are going to get barraged," he says.
More defections to Fishwick
There are signs that the labor defections from John Edwards, who's been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, to John Fishwick, who has pumped labor hard with a message aimed at working-class voters, aren't confined to the Roanoke Valley where they started.
Last Thursday, union organizers helped Fishwick when he made a campaign stop at the Genie garage-door factory in the Page County town of Shenandoah. It's a few miles outside the district, but most of the union workers there apparently live - and vote - in Rockingham County.
Local 174 President Tina Buracker said she had no qualms bucking the AFL-CIO endorsement of Edwards. "When someone calls and asks for my support, that's who I give it to," she says. "Fishwick is the only one that has called and asked me. As close as Edwards and Fishwick are [on labor issues], I think the state AFL-CIO should have made no endorsement."
She predicts about 60 of her plant's workers will turn out for Fishwick at the Rockingham County mass meeting.
Targeting the 6th
The Southeast coordinator for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was in Roanoke recently, checking up on the three candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.
The purpose? To gauge how strong any of them would be this fall, so the committee will know whether it's a good bet to pour lots of money and other resources into trying to hold onto the 6th District seat.
And now, our next congressman . . .
Ever's Family Restaurant in Mount Crawford was the scene of an unlikely encounter recently: a reception for Republican Goodlatte at one end of the Rockingham County restaurant, a function for Democrat Steve Musselwhite on the other.
Goodlatte, who'd never met Musselwhite, decided that would be a good time to introduce himself. But as he opened the door to Musselwhite's event, the room erupted in applause. Realizing that moments after Musselwhite had been introduced as "our next congressman" wouldn't be a good time for a Republican to show his head, Goodlatte quickly retreated.
Later the two finally got a chance to chat.
The teal connection
The most unusual thing about the flier Musselwhite recently mailed to 6th District Democrats isn't what it says - it plays up how he had to work his way through college when his father lost his job - but what it looks like.
The brochure is teal and purple, not a color scheme often found amid the standard red, white and blue of campaign literature. But voters in the Alleghany Highlands and Lexington might find the dusty bluish hues familiar. Those are the same colors that Bath County Del. Creigh Deeds used during his campaign last fall.
The connection? Longtime Virginia Democratic operative Susan Swecker ran both campaigns.
What's her obsession with teal?
"I like it because it does stand out," she says. "I don't have any poll that says people who campaign with teal get 2 percent more."
And besides, she says, "when something works, you keep using it."
Want to get involved?
Here's where to call:
DEMOCRATS
John Edwards: 989-4466
John Fishwick: 985-0000
Steve Musselwhite: 774-9292
REPUBLICANS
Donna Erikson: 1-800-528-VOTE
Bob Goodlatte: 982-8603
by CNB