
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994                   TAG: 9409140042
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PEGGY DAVIS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A CAMPAIGN OFFICE ISN'T FOR SHOW

THE QUESTION is whether to laugh or cry. Should I laugh at Landmark News reporter Kerry Dougherty for being so poorly informed when she wrote the Sept. 2 news column, ``Robb's office, campaign hard to find''? Or should I cry because Robb's staff was so inept at handling the interview?

Someone needs to tell Dougherty that a campaign office and a campaign headquarters are not the same thing. Clearly, the place she visited in McLean is a campaign office, where work is supposed to be done.

Shabby furniture is the norm, especially in a Democratic candidate's campaign office. (Furniture is not a good place on which to spend precious campaign money. Campaign furniture takes a beating.)

Campaign offices are not public hangouts. Utility is the key word, not beauty. And, many a campaign office is on the second floor, eighth floor or over the garage - and is open many more months than is the campaign headquarters.

The major mistake Dougherty makes is confusing and interchanging the campaign office with a campaign headquarters. The headquarters is the storefront, with zillions of flags, bunting, coffee, telephones to call the women (Republican or Democratic) to bring cookies and finger sandwiches for the staff and volunteers who never seem to eat at home.

The headquarters is the place for supporters to hang out and talk partisan politics, the place to hold press conferences, the place to host an event when the candidate is in town.

There are instances when the campaign office is moved to an area behind or over the headquarters, but that doesn't happen until after Labor Day. Especially for a statewide candidate, the best arrangement may be to continue to have that office out of the line of fire - in order to get the work done.

Another point: Any candidate who hires a campaign manager who likes the candidate's opposition is in trouble.

Dougherty informs readers that Robb's campaign manager, Susan Platt, does not like Wilder (or North) and has a magnificent manicure, a major reporting coup. We're all shocked at such news.

What does shock me is that Platt didn't do a better job of educating Dougherty in the purposes and differences between campaign offices and campaign headquarters. But maybe Platt told her, and Dougherty neglected to report it.

If Dougherty is truly interested in learning about campaign offices and headquarters, she should come to Roanoke and talk to Duke Baldridge, Carolyn Word or Joan Baker Washburn, longtime Democratic Party workers in this area. Republican Party workers Mamie Vest and Trixie Averill could shed some light on the subject, too.

What must be admitted, however, is that the office/headquarters had little to do with the point of Dougherty's column.

Peggy Davis of Fincastle was an aide to former U.S. Rep. Jim Olin of Roanoke.

by CNB