Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 22, 1993 TAG: 9307220436
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Advertising executive Howard Packett touts his business experience as one reason why voters in Salem, Southwest Roanoke County and eastern Montgomery County should send him to the House of Delegates this fall.
But that same business experience - specifically, his advertising work for Carilion Health System - also has cost the Democrat the endorsement of an increasingly influential group of voters, the Lewis-Gale Hospital Employees Political Awareness Committee.
This week the Lewis-Gale committee endorsed Packett's Republican rival, Salem lawyer Morgan Griffith, for the House seat being vacated by the retiring Del. Steve Agee.
Packett charged - and a Lewis-Gale official agreed - that one reason the hospital group backed Griffith is that Packett's ad agency counts Carilion as one of its biggest clients.
Carilion is a nonprofit group of hospitals based in Roanoke; Lewis-Gale is a for-profit hospital in Salem.
Sometimes, said Robin Barnhill, Lewis-Gale's director of nonevasive cardiac testing and the employee group's co-chairman, the hospitals are competitors, such as when the state grants permission to start certain programs.
Because Packett's ad agency does work for Carilion, "that would make him uncomfortable" if he had to chose between his business interests and his legislative duties, Barnhill said. "It could be an issue. We have employees here who could be employed or unemployed based on his decisions."
Packett said that was unlikely, and the hospital group's endorsement immediately set off a campaign squabble over who knew the most about health care.
The two candidates agree on a key medical issue - limiting most malpractice awards to $1 million. But Griffith countered that Packett was ill-informed on health-care issues when the two appeared before the Lewis-Gale group this spring.
"Howard took the position he knows about health care because he's worked for Carilion for 20 years and when he was asked about the `sick tax' [Gov. Douglas Wilder's ill-fated proposal to tax hospitals], he didn't know what it was," Griffith said. "I came in prepared. That's a big difference."
"He was pretty unprepared," Barnhill said of Packett.
The Democrat said that analysis was news to him.
The main thing at stake in the Lewis-Gale group's endorsement, though, is organizational clout.
The committee's leaders say they don't pretend to speak for all 1,200 of the hospital's workers. But last fall, when the Lewis-Gale committee endorsed Republican Bob Goodlatte for Congress, the hospital group provided a valuable corps of volunteers - perhaps 50 or 60 - to stuff envelopes and go door-to-door on behalf of their candidate.
The hospital group also can help deliver a candidate's message in other ways, such as letters to hospital workers. Goodlatte considered the group's help so influential that the day after he won the election, he returned to the hospital to shake hands in the employee cafeteria to thank workers for their help.
This year, the Lewis-Gale group has endorsed three Roanoke Valley Democrats running for the House, incumbents Richard Cranwell, Clifton Woodrum and Vic Thomas - and one Republican, Griffith.
Barnhill told a rally outside the hospital on Tuesday that the group backed Griffith because of his position on legal reform and because he has "no liabilities outside the 8th District."
She said Packett's work for Carilion was a concern, although not the deciding factor in the endorsement.
But Packett immediately issued a statement about what he called "this committee's obsession with my advertising agency's association with Carilion.
"The first question out of their mouths was how can you represent us if you represent Carilion?" Packett said. "I work for Carilion. I work for Shenandoah Life. I work for Grand Piano. But they're not going to tell me how to vote."
Packett said that on 99 percent of health issues there'd be no conflict between Carilion and Lewis-Gale. But if there was, he said, he'd abstain.
That wasn't good enough for the Lewis-Gale group. "We want a solid vote," Barnhill said.
Packett and Griffith also tangled over another Carilion connection - Griffith's wife is a home-health nurse for that hospital.
Packett said if he has a conflict, so does Griffith. And he said Griffith had promised the Lewis-Gale group "that he would ask his wife to resign her position with Carilion if a conflict arises over issues facing Carilion and Lewis-Gale."
Griffith said his wife would resign only if Carilion officials pressured her into trying to get him to vote their way on health-care issues. "I don't anticipate that," he said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB