Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I want to be there to see the voters' reactions," said state Sen. Ed Holland of Arlington.
And what does he think their reaction will be?
"Puzzlement," Holland said. "Real puzzlement."
Goode is a throwback among Virginia politicians. He's renowned in the General Assembly and on the Democratic Party circuit as a stump speaker. But in Goode's case, that's not just a figurative stump.
Early on in his political career, the penny-pinching Goode made a name for himself when he objected to the state's buying new furniture for legislators' offices. Goode simply pushed his new furniture aside, favoring instead a chair carved out of a tree stump by schoolchildren back home in Franklin County.
Goode's maverick style has served him well - or, at least, not hindered him - in the General Assembly, where he's esteemed by colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
But now that Goode has decided to take on U.S. Sen. Charles Robb in the Democrats' June primary, how will his countrified style play in the suburbs that dominate Virginia elections?
The reaction among Virginia Democrats on Wednesday was decidedly mixed.
"He could be the ideal, clean-as-a-hound's tooth candidate," said one suburban legislator, state Sen. Charles Waddell of Loudoun County.
Or, they said, he could come across as a bumpkin.
"Virgil offers an image which some of the other candidates don't have - Mr. Clean," said former state Sen. Sonny Stallings of Virginia Beach. "But I'm not so sure that image will overshadow the hayseed from Franklin County, the moonshine capital of the world."
Which image will win out?
As Virginia Democrats shook off their surprise at the latest turn in the Senate race drama, many conceded that Goode is such an unconventional politician, it's hard to handicap his candidacy in conventional terms.
"In the age of TV, persona is even more important," said one Richmond-based Democratic operative who spoke only if not identified, "and Virgil has an interesting persona. He's one of the last characters. Virgil is a very, very different from anything they have seen in Eastern Virginia in a long time and I have no idea how he'll play."
It all depends on a volatile mix of factors.
The first is whether Goode, long noted as a loner, can put together enough of an organization to collect the nearly 15,000 signatures he needs by April 15 to get on the June ballot.
"It's a monumental chore," said state party Vice Chairman Ken Geroe of Virginia Beach. "I don't know if he's correctly assessed the difficulty of doing that."
If Goode gets on the ballot, he'll then face a statewide electorate vastly different from the rural, conservative, blue-collar constituency in Franklin County, Martinsville, Henry County and Patrick County that he's represented for two decades.
One key voting bloc in the primary will be black voters in the state's biggest cities.
"Robb is banking on that vote to save him," said former state party Chairman Paul Goldman, a longtime Robb critic who has all but endorsed Goode.
With that in mind, Goldman was quick to call attention to how Goode was an early supporter of Douglas Wilder's bid for lieutenant governor in 1985 - and delivered an impassioned nominating speech on Wilder's behalf at the convention that year.
"I can remember in 1985 when nobody would give an African American a chance and the so-called liberals were afraid," said Goldman, a longtime Wilder strategist. "Virgil Goode was there. He stuck his neck out."
However, one influential black legislator, state Sen. Benjamin Lambert of Richmond, predicted Wednesday that neither Robb nor Goode will make inroads among black voters until Wilder makes his intentions clear. "It all depends on Doug," he said.
A larger question may be how Goode plays in the suburbs.
"He'll have a bigger problem with urban whites who think he's a throwback to the Old Virginia," Stallings said. "But you know, there's not a better speaker in the state. Virgil can stir a crowd like nobody."
And Goode's oratorical skills may overcome his cultural and geographical disadvantage, some say.
"I think Virgil may play very well up here," said Myke Reid, a former party chairman in Alexandria. "His sense of humor will serve him well. He's got that accent and while people may think this is some hayseed, they will think he's smart. He's very bright and I think people from Northern Virginia will be receptive. It should be a fun campaign."
"He's the type of candidate who could really catch fire," Waddell said.
Goode appears likely to position himself as a populist taking on the party establishment, which has largely - if unenthusiastically - lined up behind Robb.
But style alone won't be enough to win, warns Susie Wrenn, the Democratic chairwoman in Fairfax County. "I think the people up here would be very issue-oriented. They won't decide on whether it's populist or establishment."
And that could be a problem for Goode, warns Holland. "I think he'll have a struggle finding issues he can relate to Northern Virginia."
Goode's voting record tends toward the conservative side on many issues important to liberal Democrats. He angered feminists in the early 1980s by voting against the Equal Rights Amendment. And he's long argued that parents should be notified before their minor daughters have an abortion.
"He's probably more conservative than Chuck Robb, and Chuck Robb is too conservative for a lot of people up here," Reid said.
The wild card may be how concerned Democratic voters are about Robb's indiscretions. He's been accused by his own staffers (since fired) of socializing with drug dealers and prostitutes at parties in Virginia Beach in the early 1980s, and Robb himself recently admitted to conduct "not appropriate for a married man."
That was enough to motivate at least one voter Wednesday. Robin Lind of Goochland County showed up at Goode's announcement at the state Capitol just to shake Goode's hand.
"This is good vs. evil," Lind told him. "This is what we've been looking for. I want to start working for you today, shining shoes or anything."
Staff writer Margaret Edds contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB