Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 6, 1994 TAG: 9409060073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUENA VISTA LENGTH: Long
If you wanted to feel the tectonic plates of Virginia's political landscape shifting beneath your feet, all you had to do Monday was stand at the corner of 21st Street and Magnolia Avenue as the annual Labor Day parade rolled by in this little industrial city at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Oliver North's arrival was heralded by a ripple of whispers and squeals through the crowd - "Oh, look, there's Ollie North!" - that eventually burst into full-fledged applause when the Republican Senate nominee hoofed by, working the route on foot.
A few moments later, incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles Robb's convertible eased along almost in silence, until some scattered, but mostly tepid, handclaps acknowledged his presence.
Read into the applause levels what you will, but keep in mind Buena Vista has been a Democratic stronghold for decades, the kind of working-class community that Democrats carried, even in bad years. But Monday, the loudest cheers - and the greatest number of stickers - were clearly for the Republicans.
It's a trend that had North supporters crowing yet again about how they've eaten into what has been Robb's base of blue-collar voters in rural and small-town Virginia - and had some Democrats shaking their heads in dismay at the GOP's apparent success.
"Unfortunately for us Democrats, it looks like North is ahead in this area," conceded the community's Democratic state senator, Frank Nolen of Augusta County.
That was enough to prompt a dour Nolen to predict North will win statewide in November. "I think he will," Nolen said. "It'll be a regret. I think he'll be an embarrassment, just like when Bill Scott was our senator [in the 1970s].''
What does it matter who's ahead or behind in a manufacturing city of just 6,406 people in a state whose population tops 6 million? It matters, some political operatives say, because Buena Vista is emblematic of the type of place where Virginia Republicans have gained strength in recent elections.
"Buena Vista is a bellwether," said Roger Jarrell, a Roanoke-based Republican field worker who grew up in nearby Rockbridge County. "It used to be you couldn't get five Republicans together here. It wasn't until the 1980s that Republicans even came to Buena Vista on Labor Day."
But George Allen carried Buena Vista in last year's race for governor, and on Monday a record crowd of 235 Republicans turned out to eat breakfast with North at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.
What's behind the switch? "People had the image of Republicans as rich, country-club types," said Roger Dean, the Republican chairman for Buena Vista, Rockbridge County and Lexington. But in recent years, Virginia Republicans have emphasized more cultural issues - such as guns and school prayer - designed to win over conservative-minded, blue-collar voters.
That makes it especially hard for Robb to fight back, Nolen said. "I don't know what he could do."
Worse yet from Nolen's point of view, Robb has played into North's hands through a series of high-profile votes that seem to undermine his image as a moderate Democrat. "For the businessman, the procedural vote on the striker-replacement bill is a real concern," Nolen said. "That will come up a lot. People don't understand the gun control vote, or the crime bill vote. That'll cost him. His vote on the homosexuals [in the military], that's a problem. It is pretty grim. It's not a pleasant thing for those of us who are conservative Democrats."
That much was evident from talking to voters who came out to see the beauty queens, the baton twirlers, the marching band - and, yes, the politicians - parade by.
Not a single voter, interviewed at random, was inclined to back either of the independents, former Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder or former Republican Attorney General Marshall Coleman. "I just don't hear much about either one of them," said Tommy Balser, a retired factory worker.
Instead, most voters who expressed a preference were as emphatic as Alma Shaw. "The only one I care about is Oliver North," she said. "I like him because he's a Christian."
"I think he's a fine military man," added her husband, William E. Shaw. "A whole lot of people I talk to talk about Oliver North."
If there was one constant among North supporters, it was that emphasis on his military record - specifically, his role as a National Security Council aide in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair. The suggestion that North may have been an overzealous, or even renegade, officer doesn't play with these voters. Consider this sampling of opinion on Magnolia Avenue:
James W. Hostetter: "The whole situation they were trying to get him for before, the overhead people were in on it. I don't believe it was his fault. I just believe the president was in on it."
Della Mayo: "I think he was set up on a lot of those things."
Lewis Teague: "I think all that episode he was in before, he was just a whipping boy for the president and vice president."
There was, to be sure, some Robb support evident on the streets of Buena Vista, although much of it seemed rooted in hostility to North. "I wouldn't vote for Oliver North if he was the last man on earth," said Lexington homemaker Hazel Smith. "He really embarrassed the United States and disgraced us, and to run for office - he's got a lot of nerve."
Balser, though, remembered how Robb worked to secure funding for the city's floodwall. As a former flood victim, that helped sway his vote. "I know what Robb's done for us," he said. "I know what he's done for me." But, Balser conceded, "it's going to be close here in Rockbridge County and Buena Vista. It'll be close."
However, David Natkin, the Democratic chairman in Lexington, cautioned that Robb's support is stronger than it may appear. "People haven't started concentrating on the race yet," he said. "People either don't care, or they care very strongly." North's supporters, he said, are simply more vocal - and, for now, more visible.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB