BEYER CONTRASTS HIMSELF WITH POSSIBLE GOP OPPONENT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993                   TAG: 9304160300
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium
BEYER CONTRASTS HIMSELF WITH POSSIBLE GOP OPPONENT
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer may prefer to run for re-election against Michael Farris, a conservative Loudoun County lawyer who is seeking the Republican candidacy.
At least that was the Republican with whom Beyer compared himself when asked about the race during a visit here Wednesday night. He did not mention Bobbie Kilberg, a former Bush White House official, who also is seeking the GOP nod.
"He's about as different from me as anyone can be," Beyer said, referring to Farris' stand against abortion and criticisms of public education in Virginia. "There should be a real contrast in our messages."
If he wins, Beyer observed, he would be the first Virginia lieutenant governor elected to a second term since 1957.
Beyer drew an enthusiastic crowd at Ellery's Blues and More during his stop. He chatted with reporters on a variety of topics, including his hope of returning as lieutenant governor in an administration headed by former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry.
"I think that it will be different" from Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration, he said. They have different leadership styles, he said, "but both are very committed to Virginia's future."
He said he expects to play a major role in Terry's administration in such areas as economic growth, adult education, poverty and welfare reform and attacking the problem of sexual abuse.
"It seemed that we ripped the lid off something we didn't know was there," he said of his task force on sexual abuse, which has held hearings around the state. He said it found that sexual assaults on children, in particular, led to many other problems.
A large percentage of the people who become sex offenders or prostitutes are now known to have suffered sexual abuse as children, he said.
Twenty-one percent of people in the corrections system were convicted of sex offenses, he said.
Beyer said laws must be overhauled to rehabilitate sex offenders early because by the time they hit their 20s, it usually remains a lifelong problem with them.
As for welfare reform, he said, poverty now drives Virginia's budget, along with prison costs, because those do not leave a lot of money for other initiatives.
Poverty also connects with prison problems because many who commit crimes come from low-income backgrounds.
Solutions to child sexual abuse and poverty would go a long way toward easing the prison problem, he said.
Education is a key to curbing poverty, he said, by training people for the high-tech jobs that Virginia should aim to land.
Even Northern Virginia complains of being unable to find qualified people from its region, he said, and must import them from other states.
He predicted that the legislature will come back next year with a plan to end educational disparities between Virginia's poor and rich school systems, which will make the suit filed by a coalition of poor localities irrelevant.
"All that needs to be done right now is to determine how to pay for it," he said of a plan. "That's pretty easy."
It has been hard for the past few years because of the recession and Wilder's pledge not to raise taxes, he said.
Keywords:
POLITICS

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB