Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993 TAG: 9310030023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FRANKLIN LENGTH: Long
The excitement and tension that four years ago marked the prospect of having a black man elected governor of Virginia seems to be missing from the current gubernatorial election.
While race was an ever-present factor in the 1989 campaign that put Douglas Wilder in the Executive Mansion, this year it has been supplanted by gender.
Democrat Mary Sue Terry is taking on Republican George Allen to succeed Wilder. She would become the first woman governor ever in Virginia.
In this small city tucked in peanut and paper mill territory between Southampton and Isle of Wight counties, questions about race are quickly met with answers about Terry's sex.
"I think some women will vote for her because she's a woman, just like some men will vote against her because she's a woman," said Ed Seymore, 58, a Courtland farmer who was selling produce at Franklin's weekday farmer's market.
"If she can do the job, then let her have it," said 28-year-old Diane Hamlin, a full-time student at Paul D. Camp Community College's Franklin campus. "It's time for those things to change."
"Right now, we're leaning toward Mary Sue Terry, not just because she's a woman, but I think it's important that a woman be heard,` said Pat Ellis, 48, a seamstress at Clara's alterations shop in downtown Franklin. "This is the year of change, and I'd like to think a woman could be elected."
Discussions about race and politics, and race relations generally, are circumspect, measured, in this city whose population is evenly divided between blacks and whites.
"I'm expecting Mary Sue Terry to do something for us because she's a minority - a woman. And out of that, I'd expect her to have some understanding," said P.T. Wallace, 58, a retired Franklin High School math teacher, who is black.
"But I haven't heard her say anything. They're both too busy talking about guns, guns, guns. They need to address the issues, like what can we do to get these people off welfare and make them independent," Wallace said.
Four years ago, there was an enthusiasm in the local black community that was linked to Wilder's candidacy, Wallace said. It spurred scores of people to register to vote, he said.
That's missing this year, he said.
Sandy Holloman, Franklin's voter registrar, confirmed his assessment.
"There was a lot more interest in signing up to vote four years ago," Holloman said. "I don't know why that was."
Though four registration drives have been held in the county, only 35 people have signed up in the past month. Monday is the deadline to register for the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election.
Wallace said the lack of interest is because "neither [candidate] is appealing to black voters."
"The Democrats have somewhat deceived us and we're afraid of what the Republicans have done in the past," Wallace said. "I think some blacks will stay at home [on Election Day] and the majority who go to the polls will vote for her."
Ellis, who is white, worked for 10 years at the local Union Camp paper mill, the area's major employer, until an injury forced her into a less strenuous job in the alterations shop in 1991.
She said most candidates make "specialized appeals" to different racial groups, and she resents it.
"I hate to think that race is a factor in elections," Ellis said, noting that she voted for Wilder in 1989. "But as long as we're alive, race is always a part of it."
Ellis said she hasn't heard Terry or Allen make overt appeals to blacks or whites. In fact, she said she hasn't heard them discuss much more than crime, guns and the criminal justice system.
"I believe the prisons are overloaded, and I don't know what the solution is. That's what the governor is for - to come up with those answers," she said.
"I don't know about the criminal justice system either, particularly when a person can go in [prison] on a rape charge and only get four or five years."
"The laws in Virginia seem wishy-washy," she continued. "I'm not an advocate for guns. But I can see a time and a place for them. They can be beneficial in the home to protect yourself, as long as they are not around children. You have to educate children to stay away from guns."
With all the problems confronting the state, it's easy to leave the conflicts to politicians to handle, she said.
"But you don't know who you can trust anymore," Ellis said. "If you vote for someone thinking they may make a difference, you wind up finding out later when they're in office that their hands are tied by Congress or the legislature. You get really frustrated because they don't have sole power. But then, that would be a dictatorship."
Ellis and Seymore, the Courtland farmer, said both candidates should overhaul worker's compensation.
Seymore, who is white, detailed the red tape that he said has prevented him from either fully returning to work or collecting much in worker's compensation benefits since he fell and hurt his back four years ago on his construction job.
He'd worked in construction all his life, Seymore said. Now, he farms. Worker's compensation, he said, "is a joke."
"My problem is that 90 percent of all politicians are lawyers. They've learned in a courtroom to defend both sides of an issue. They take this into the political arena, and we're in trouble," he said.
"I believe both of them [Terry and Allen] are unfit to lead the Commonwealth," Seymore said. "I think it's necessary to address issues, not to slander one another."
He said Gen. Colin Powell, the just-retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be a good alternative.
"I guess I'm just down on lawyers," Seymore said, adding that he didn't think he was prejudiced until the recent news surrounding Hampton high school basketball star Allen Iverson.
Iverson, who is black, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, in connection with a brawl at a Hampton bowling alley.
"Racial tensions have gotten worse because of it," Seymore said. "The black community always rallies behind you, even though the judicial process says you are guilty. If you don't let this dog lie, then it will never lie. The more you beat it, the worse it becomes."
"The color of someone's skin should not be an issue," said Wallace T. Ricks, 29, president of the Student Government Association at the Camp Community College's Franklin campus.
He is black, and like many students, black and white, said race and gender should play no part in choosing Virginia's next governor.
But Ricks said voting is likely to be polarized along racial lines because "this nation is too caught up in race."
"I can tell you as a black man that many African-Americans are angry because of some of the laws in this state," Ricks said. "And many are not going to vote."
He said he thinks people are accused of crimes with "too little evidence," and that many on death row are unjustly there. But on the other hand, he said criminals sentenced to the electric chair ought to be put to death within 30 days.
"The waiting period on death row is too long. It shouldn't be stretched out," Ricks said.
He said the state needs a curfew law for juveniles, and that welfare benefits shouldn't be denied people once they find jobs.
"They should have a paycheck coming in steady for two months before they are taken off the system," he said.
His view of the welfare system is shared by Trisha Tharrington, 24, of Black Creek. Tharrington, who is white, is receiving monthly welfare benefits and food stamps for her child while she studies at the community college for a computer information systems degree.
"I believe the governor ought to make a law that everyone on welfare has to get an education to better themselves and then move on so someone else can get help from the system," Tharrington said.
But in the same breath, she and Ricks said the state needs more welfare workers to check applicants in detail and prevent cheating.
"I don't hear [Terry and Allen] talking about these things. All they talk about is guns," Ricks said. "If we don't address racial issues, then things are going to get worse in this country."
"I haven't heard them talk about education or jobs," said Hamlin, who is black and a student studying early childhood development. Until about a month ago, she worked full time while attending the community college. But Dyno Merchandise, the sewing notions factory just across the street from campus, closed and she lost her $5.50-an-hour job.
"They [the candidates] should be trying to help people find jobs," Hamlin said. "But the only thing I've hear them talk about is the gun issue.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB