Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 15, 1993 TAG: 9309110296
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
1. Floss teeth daily.
2. Prepare to run for governor.
3. Have picture taken with Miss Virginia.
4. Head task force on doing away with superfluous statewide offices.
5. Avoid taking sides in disputes between governor and attorney general.
6. Preside over state Senate, without voting rights except in cases of a tie.
The answer: all of the above, save 4.
It is to his credit that incumbent Lt. Gov. Don Beyer has done far more to earn his $32,000 a year than cast the occasional tie-breaking vote and wait quietly in the wings.
The Democrat's record thus far is extraordinary - replete with solid work and constructive achievements, especially given the limits of his job. Beyer's service in such areas as economic development, child abuse and poverty has been particularly noteworthy.
So why has he been disappointing, thus far, as a candidate for re-election?
Lawyer Mike Farris, Beyer's opponent, is making hay of Beyer's refusal to debate or participate in joint appearances. The Republican's camp says Farris has accepted six groups' invitations to debate, and Beyer has either nixed the affairs or is stalling on accepting.
This is traditional incumbent strategy. Beyer doubtless wishes to avoid detracting from the impression, happily fostered by Farris himself, that this challenger's is a marginal, ideological candidacy. (The incumbent may also wish to avoid the enthusiastic crowds Farris has been drawing.)
Still, Virginians like to see their candidates for public office mix it up in joint appearances. The relative obscurity surrounding the lieutenant governor's post won't be dispelled much if the incumbent proves a stealth candidate.
This early in the campaign, there's plenty of time for redemptive agreement to debate. Beyer's strategy is in any case up to him.
More troubling, meanwhile, is his repudiation of President Clinton's budget package.
During and after a television interview taped for today, Beyer said that, had he been in Congress, he would have voted against the bill because of the tax increases it contains. Since it passed by one vote in both houses, Virginians may assume Beyer would have willingly been the one to send the package down.
Mary Sue Terry, gubernatorial candidate and also a Democrat, has taken a shot as well at the president's package. Neither Terry nor Beyer is running for Congress, of course. But both have apparently been reading the polls gauging Clinton's popularity in the state.
Both Terry and Beyer also should know that the president's bill was the only game in Washington when it comes to deficit-reduction fairly found.
It raises income taxes, but on the affluent, and it contains features - such as an increased earned-income-tax credit for low-income families - that Beyer himself has embraced. Bigger spending cuts and serious structural reforms would have been preferable; they still are needed. But the budget also would have been better with a bigger increase in the gasoline tax.
Lining up against revenue measures in Clinton's package may be, like avoiding debates, shrewd politics. But that doesn't make it laudable.
Beyer has made his office bigger by the way he has worked in it. He shouldn't diminish it by the way he runs to keep it.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB