Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993 TAG: 9310300175
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON AND ROB EURE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Scores of students at Virginia Union University, a historically black private college, turned out to hear Wilder, Terry and her Democratic ticketmates at an upbeat outdoor rally. She made a similar appearance later, without Wilder, at Norfolk State University.
On both campuses, Terry found support laced with skepticism. Several Virginia Union students, citing "mudslinging" between Terry and Republican George Allen, said they would rather not vote.
One student from New York told Terry he didn't think a white person could adequately represent his views.
"That's like a white person saying they can only vote for a white," Terry told him.
"That's my opinion," the student responded. "It's not a racial thing. That's what I believe."
"I'm sorry you feel that way," said Terry, turning away. Her handlers were calling for her to hit the road, but another student - also from New York - criticized her for seeking their votes and then just walking off.
At Norfolk State, where Terry addressed about 200 students, senior Shawn Dottery acknowledged that "I don't feel the enthusiasm . . . even though I'm a strong supporter."
The Virginia Union rally was the second joint appearance in five days for Wilder and Terry, who rarely have campaigned together. With polls showing Wilder's popularity low among the state's white majority, Terry has kept her distance, and Wilder has chafed at her failure to run on his record.
But with black political leaders openly worried that the Terry-Wilder rift has hurt her among black voters, Terry went to black churches with the governor Sunday, and her campaign has been singing his praises this week in radio advertisements on black-oriented stations.
Terry and Wilder used the campus appearances to decry Allen's airing this week of a radio ad targeted for blacks and seeking to exploit the wedge between them.
The Allen commercial casts Terry as Wilder's enemy, suggesting that she is cozying up to him now because her campaign is "desperate." But in television ads and daily speeches, Allen has characterized Terry as Wilder's political clone.
"He's saying, `Wilder, Wilder, Wilder' over here. And on certain radio stations, he's saying, `Wilder and Terry, they're not friends. You shouldn't vote for her because they're enemies,' " Wilder told the Virginia Union crowd.
"If the Republicans are cynical enough to think that the people of Virginia will buy that kind of message, they need to go back to their schools - their private academies, that is," Terry said.
Later, at Norfolk State, Terry called Allen's radio ad "duplicity."
"It's the type of campaign that says one thing to one group and another to another group. You know the purpose of those ads," she told the students.
Norfolk Democratic Chairwoman Harrietta Eley said the ad is an effort to drive down black turnout next week.
"I give black folk credit for being smart," Eley said, "and being able to recognize covert and code signals. The whole Allen campaign is a code."
Terry supporters distributed flyers to the largely black Virginia Union crowd featuring an ad published this week in The Richmond Free Press and The Richmond Afro-American, two weekly papers that target the city's black community.
The ad features a photo of Terry and Wilder standing side by side. Each is wearing Kente cloth - a handmade African cloth - draped around the neck.
Terry deflected questions on whether she is "using" Wilder by campaigning with him only in black communities and in ads targeted to black voters.
"The message is the same," she said. "There's nothing hidden."
But at both campuses, Terry sought to address concerns among blacks that her distance from Wilder belies a lack of concern for them.
"I've taken very seriously in this campaign people who feel used and abused, neglected by government, and people who feel they don't have any power," she said at Norfolk State.
She recounted her youth in Patrick County at small schools, where she was one of only two people in her graduating class to complete college.
"I'm here today because of the power of education. I've confronted stereotypes and broken barriers all my life."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB