Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 7, 1993 TAG: 9309070208
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUENA VISTA LENGTH: Long
\ Mary Sue Terry, having watched her double-digit lead in the polls evaporate in the summer heat, began striking back Monday.
The Democratic candidate for governor used an appearance at the traditional Labor Day rally in this small industrial city at the foot of the Blue Ridge to blast her Republican opponent, George Allen, as a flip-flopper who will say anything to get elected.
"The overarching issue in this campaign is trust," Terry said, sounding a campaign theme that aides said was intended to "crystallize" her message after a summer in which some Democrats around Virginia openly worried that she wasn't being aggressive enough.
"We're tired of politicians who rewrite history and make empty promises," Terry told the crowd that turned out to hear five of the six statewide candidates talk beneath a picnic shelter at Glen Maury Park. "George Allen has made an awful lot of empty promises, promises he knows he can't keep."
Allen, for his part, seemed overjoyed by Terry's attack, welcoming it as a sign that he has put her on the defensive. A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed Terry's 18-point lead has shrunk to 6 points - nearly a dead heat, considering the poll's margin of error.
Virginia tradition has fixed the Labor Day parade and festival in Buena Vista as the kickoff of the fall campaign. "But as far as I'm concerned, this is the second half," an upbeat Allen told the crowd. "Our campaign started moving early."
Labor Day also marks the end of summer vacation. Most Virginia students start school today, and Allen used Monday to release his education plan. Terry will wait until today, when she visits elementary schools in Marion, Dublin and Roanoke, to release hers.
Instead, she came out swinging Monday, ticking off a list of issues on which she charged Allen has either switched positions, offered no position or taken the wrong position.
"Here it is Labor Day, and he has no economic development plan, no commitment to [solve] disparity in education," Terry said. "He's had three different positions on parole, four different positions on abortion. We're trying to just have one position per issue. You don't average them out."
Terry also directed special fire at Allen on drunken driving, an issue she has been identified with since early in her political career.
"He talks about getting tough on drunk drivers," Terry charged, "but he was against raising the drinking age and against administrative revocation," a procedure that would allow police officers at the scene to seize the driver's license of anyone arrested for drunken driving.
Terry charged that Allen has a history of "talking the talk but not walking the walk" that goes back to the early 1980s. Both were members of the House of Delegates then, and she was leading the fight to raise the state's drinking age from 18 to 21 as a way to reduce drunken driving.
"When the time came to vote, he didn't vote against it once, he voted against it twice," Terry said. "The statement that he made in the Charlottesville Daily Progress was that he voted against raising the drinking age because restaurant and bar owners had made investments relying on the law being the way it was.
"Five years later, the Bush administration commended Virginia for its efforts in drunk driving and raising the drinking age, and said it had saved the lives of 150 teen-agers during the '80s."
Allen laughed off Terry's jab on drunken driving.
"Well, how about that?" he said. "If she wants to harp on raising the beer-drinking age, there's a pressing issue for the future of Virginia," he said in jest. "She's obviously getting very worried, and she has to get onto diversionary tactics."
Allen limited his remarks at the Buena Vista rally to his standard campaign talk, linking Terry to the "status quo" in Richmond.
Instead, Allen's main event of the day was to fly back to Richmond to release his education plan. In it, Allen says he would:
Establish "rigorous academic standards which specifically identify the skills and knowledge that students must learn at their grade level." Allen said existing standards "are currently addressed only in the most vague terms by the state Department of Education."
Require students to be tested every two years for "an objective and quantifiable measure of student progress."
Challenge localities to develop "demonstration programs" to raise student achievement. The state would help localities that set up such programs by either waiving state mandates and/or providing "limited seed money" that Allen said would come from funds now allocated for the controversial "outcome-based education" program. Allen has said he would abolish outcome-based education, which critics call brainwashing and proponents say is a misunderstood attempt to instill values in students.
Require schools to notify all parents in writing whenever drugs or weapons are found on school property. (Terry says notifying the police is sufficient. "When you notify the police, the parents are going to know about it, and the community is going to know about it, my friend," she said.)
Aides said Allen's education plan - although it doesn't specifically mention the disparity in funding between rich and poor school systems - would go a long way toward solving the problem.
"One of the critical aspects of solving disparity is eliminating frivolous and unfunded mandates," said Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe.
"There are too many central office dictates," Allen said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB