Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993 TAG: 9310290357
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For more than a decade, the heart of the current 9th has been represented by Del. Willard Finney, a soft-spoken laid back Rocky Mount lawyer. With Finney's retirement, two untested political newcomers have stepped forward to succeed him: Democrat Wes Naff III, head of a Rocky Mount real-estate and appraisal firm, and Republican Allen Dudley, vice president of a Rocky Mount bank. (Also running is independent Jerry Johnson, who is calling for the appointment rather than direct election of U.S. senators.)
Both Dudley and Naff have put economic development at the center of their campaigns. That's no surprise, given the unemployment and underemployment that plague the mostly rural district.
Of the two, Naff seems to have the firmer feel for what it takes to spur development, and a clearer grasp of the link between education and economic growth.
In words though not necessarily in manner, Dudley has been the more aggressive on the campaign trail. This may reflect the strategic requirements of a Republican running in a traditionally Democratic district. Though himself not claiming to be part of the religious right, Dudley does not criticize the forces, mobilized behind GOP lieutenant-governor candidate Michael Farris, that gained effective control of this year's Republican state convention.
The bigger difficulty, however, is that Dudley's economic-development vision is too limited. He does not go beyond the anti-regulation, low-tax talk that, while relevant, is not enough by itself. He professes not to see, for example, any connection between economic growth and the quality of the state's higher- education system - a potentially fatal attitude in the emerging knowledge-based economy of the next century.
Naff, by contrast, stresses the link between education and the economy. While saying that higher education should be examined with an eye toward finding more efficiencies, he says he doesn't want to see further cutbacks.
Naff says more state money can be found for K-12 education through more efficient government and reallocation of resources. Whatever the prospects for that, the view seems no more naive or evasive than the Republican suggestion that longer prison terms resulting from a no-parole policy won't raise prison costs at the expense of other state-government activities.
Naff notes, too, that Virginia already is a right-to-work state with comparatively low taxes and a fiscally sound government; the point, he says, is to maintain and build on those advantages.
For the 9th Legislative District specifically, Naff says the area needs to identify the ``knockout factors'' that get it scratched from the lists of industrial and business prospects. The community then can determine how and whether to remove those factors.
As one example, he suggests that the absence of natural-gas service in Franklin and Floyd counties is a deterrent to industrial growth; an obvious answer is to work for extension of Roanoke Gas Co. lines into those counties. Another knockout factor, Naff says, may be lack of an interstate highway. If so, the district has a crucial interest in where the proposed north-south Interstate 73 will be routed.
In several respects, there is little to distinguish between Naff and Dudley. Both have deep roots in Franklin County. Neither has a record in public office to be judged. Both are businessmen interested in the district's economic development.
But because he seems to be trying to dig more deeply at the underlying forces that can cause or thwart economic growth, the nod here goes to Naff.
Keywords:
POLITICS ENDORSEMENT
by CNB