Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993 TAG: 9311030328
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Howard Musser (I) 9,756 (43 percent)
Marsha Fielder had faith when others doubted.
When Fielder began her campaign to become Roanoke's commissioner of revenue last March, few expected her to win the Democratic Party nomination, much less Tuesday's election.
She overcame long odds. And she benefitted from several unexpected developments along the way.
She won 57 percent of the vote as she easily defeated Councilman Howard Musser, a Democrat who ran as an independent. She carried all but two of the city's 32 precincts.
Musser managed to carry only one precinct in Raleigh Court and another in South Roanoke.
Fielder, 32, becomes one of Roanoke's youngest elected officials in recent years.
"I felt like I ran a clean, positive campaign, and the people responded," she said Tuesday night as she was congratulated by Democrats at an election-night gathering.
Winning the Democratic nomination proved to be tougher for Fielder than Tuesday's election.
Musser could not campaign during the two months leading up to the election because he was in the hospital recovering from a stroke.
Fielder acknowledged that the contest could have been different had Musser been physically able to campaign, but she said the outcome would have been the same.
Musser disagreed Tuesday night. He believes he could have won. "I am pleased I got [43 percent of the vote] even though I could not campaign," he said.
In the campaign's final week, Musser bought newspaper ads to tell voters he could perform the duties of the post if he was elected. But the ads didn't convince enough voters.
Exit interviews at the polls showed that his illness hurt him. Some voters questioned whether he could handle the job.
Anne Short, a voter at the Williamson Road No. 2 precinct, had planned to vote for Musser until his stroke.
"I feel that he couldn't do the job now. So I voted for [Fielder]," Short said.
Even without health problems, Musser would have faced an uphill battle. To win, he needed the support of Republican and independent voters, in addition to that of some Democrats, because Roanoke traditionally supports Democratic candidates.
Fielder got a break when the Republicans failed to field a candidate even though GOP incumbent Jerome Howard has held the post for 28 years.
Musser failed to cut into Fielder's Democratic base as he had hoped. Many Democrats still were angry at him for refusing to support Mayor David Bowers last year after he lost the mayoral nomination to Bowers.
Fielder has worked in the Roanoke County commissioner of revenue's office for 14 years. Her father, Wayne Compton, is county commissioner, and she has been his chief deputy.
Fielder and her father will be the first father-daughter combination to be commissioners of revenue in adjoining localities in Virginia.
Labor leaders supported Fielder because they felt she would do a better job of making sure that all businesses and contractors have business licenses.
Fielder spent nearly $18,000 on her campaign, almost three times as much as Musser. Unions were her biggest contributors. The Virginia AFL-CIO gave her $1,100.
Labor leaders also helped her win the Democratic nomination by turning out a crowd of nearly 350 voters for her at the party's mass meeting. She won the nomination by 23 votes, beating David Anderson, deputy city treasurer, who defeated her for the nomination four years ago.
Anderson said last week that he would welcome write-in votes, but how many he got won't be known until they are counted today.
Keywords:
ELECTION
by CNB