Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The last time Al Gore was in Roanoke, it was the spring of 1988, and the Tennesseean was looking to revive his sagging presidential fortunes with a clean sweep of the Super Tuesday Democratic primaries across the South.
Among those who joined Gore during his appearance at the Salvation Army shelter on Salem Avenue was one Charles Robb, former governor and senator-in-waiting, the biggest and most respectable name Gore could call upon to bless his candidacy in Virginia.
It must have worked: Gore swept Southwest Virginia by landslide margins, and held on to eke out a statewide victory.
Six years later, Gore and Robb are coming back to Roanoke for another campaign rally, but this time the roles are reversed.
It's Gore - as in, Vice President Gore - who's being counted on to jump-start Robb's campaign.
Democratic leaders in the Roanoke Valley are remarkably candid in conceding they need the glamour of the vice presidency to invigorate party activists who haven't yet been turned on by Robb's lackluster re-election effort.
"The rank and the file? Hell, it's been a problem getting the leadership excited," says former Salem Democratic Chairman Ross Hart. "The excitement is Oliver North. If the Republicans had run somebody with more traditional credentials, that person would be leading by more than the point or so North is leading by in the latest polls."
Yet, as discouraged as some Democrats are by Robb's sluggish showing on the campaign trail this summer and fall, it's North's polarizing politics that gives them hope Robb can still pull out a victory.
That's why Onzlee Ware, chairman of the 6th Congressional District Democrats, declares Gore's visit is effectively where the Robb re-election drive begins - at least in this part of the state.
"I'm hoping it'll fire up some Democrats," Ware says. "It'll certainly fire up the activists who have a responsibility for getting others to come out" on Election Day.
That alone is a sign Robb has a problem, says Emory & Henry College President Tom Morris, a longtime political analyst. "In the last week of September, you shouldn't be in a position of having to generate enthusiasm among your basic supporters, but in fact that's where Robb is. In that respect, Al Gore can be helpful, in creating a sense of excitement."
Ware is especially hopeful that Gore's visit can inspire black voters - traditionally the Democratic Party's most reliable constituency - to commit to Robb. Polls show that 34 percent of the state's black voters remain undecided, prompting some Democratic leaders to worry that many blacks simply won't vote this November.
"I think we especially have to fire the African-American community up," Ware says. "It was a let-down to a lot of people that Doug Wilder got out, especially the way he left them. We need to fire 'em up and let 'em know what's at stake. It's important not only to Senator Robb, but to the Democratic Party."
Ware warns fellow blacks that any Republican tidal wave that sweeps through the 1994 elections could wash over into the 1995 General Assembly races - when, he points out, all of the members of the legislature's black caucus will be up for re-election.
"This is where it all starts," he says. "Otherwise we'll have problems with some General Assembly seats next year. This is the election that will tell about the next election. I'm not under any illusions about that."
Gore may be an odd choice for the role of cheerleader. This is a man who jokes that in a room full of Secret Service agents, he's easy to spot - he's the stiff one. "We're not talking the Dynamic Duo here this weekend," says Al Wilson, Roanoke's Democratic chairman.
Nor is Gore a natural for the role of targeting black voters. "For that, you really need a Jesse Jackson," says Doug Bailey, a former Republican political consultant who now publishes The Hotline, a daily Washington newsletter about politics.
However, Gore is a natural for another tricky job - reassuring moderate Southern Democrats uneasy with President Clinton.
Wilson says he and other local party leaders met with Robb campaign officials earlier this year and delivered a blunt warning. "They asked who we wanted to come and we said, `Don't send the president. Nobody around here likes the man. This is not Clinton country.' This is obvious to even the casual observer of politics."
But Gore, Wilson says, is acceptable. He contends that Virginians draw a sharp distinction between the president and the vice president. "A lot of Democrats and Democrat-leaning people see a certain kinship with Al Gore. Al Gore is real popular in Southwest Virginia" - which also happens to be the part of the state where polls show Robb is faring worst.
William Schneider, the CNN political analyst and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, puts it this way: "If you're a Democrat and if you're sick of Bill Clinton, you probably look to Al Gore as the last hope."
Gore, he says, is a unique vice president - more popular than his boss. That's why, Schneider says, a campaign appearance by Gore offers Robb "some potential for reaching out to independents. It has some potential for reaching beyond the Clinton base."
Gore, he says, even has his own set of issues he can fall back on to reassure Southern audiences that he and Robb are still "New Democrats," namely welfare reform, deficit reduction, and "reinventing government."
Republicans say that won't make any difference. They contend Gore's visit actually helps North because it reminds voters just how closely Robb has tied himself to the administration.
"Gore is clearly a spokesman for the Clinton administration and Clinton's right-hand man," says Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke. "The issue is what the two candidates for the Senate stand for and Al Gore's visit helps to highlight that."
Nevertheless, Robb already has chosen to identify himself with the administration. Clinton himself is making a fund-raising appearance for Robb in Northern Virginia on Monday. Robb's major challenge now is to energize his own supporters, Morris says, and that's why Gore's visit is so essential.
"The risk of having Gore in is worth taking," Morris says. "Ultimately, it has to be taken."
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by CNB