Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090136
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Clute stopped over in Blacksburg on Tuesday to distribute petitions for the June primary and attend a fund-raiser at the home of Montgomery County Supervisor Jim Moore.
"I'm here to endorse Sylvia Clute," Moore said to the about 30 local Democrats who attended.
For Clute, who has never been elected to office, the endorsement from an elected official - albeit a local one from Southwest Virginia - was worth taking seriously. It's the first such endorsement she's gotten in the state. She doesn't expect many big names to sign on.
"For me to get an elected official . . . that's extraordinary," Clute said. "I need that type of courage."
The big problem for Clute, political observers say, is simple: her obscurity.
"Even among party people, she's an unknown," said Bob Denton, a political pundit and head of the communications department at Virginia Tech.
For example, a call was placed to the office of 9th District Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and a high-ranking staffer said he would get a message to the congressman.
"And who is Sylvia Clute?" the staffer asked. After being told, he said, "Sorry, the name didn't ring a bell."
So who is Sylvia Clute?
A lawyer for almost 20 years, she has worked to reform laws on topics like domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse and sexual harassment. She taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, and founded the state's first women-owned bank in 1976.
That's her resume.
Politically, she's a novice - or maybe an innocent.
She tells a story of traveling to East Berlin in 1963 and seeing a nation in fear. When she returned to the Berlin Wall in 1990 with two of her children, people were dancing on the wall.
With the right leadership for Virginia, she said, "there's no wall we can't dance on. That's not ideological poppycock."
More substantively, "I would really like to be known as a person who is a leader in education," Clute said.
She also wants to see Virginia work to attract environmental technology firms. "We could make money on environmental investment."
She speaks most passionately, though, about "universal principles" that bring people together instead of dividing them.
"When I talk to people . . . they so much want an alternative," she said. "All I lack is name recognition."
Clute's other problem is money. Compared to Sen. Charles Robb and North, she's practically broke.
She's raised a little more than $60,000. Robb and North have each raised more than 20 times that.
Because of her lack of notoriety, "She's got to define herself before Robb," said Denton. "The only way you can do that is with money."
At the fund-raiser, Clute acknowledged that need.
"The critical thing is money - not a lot of it," but enough for a media blitz near the primary date, she told the gathering.
She'll need $700,000 to win the nomination, she said.
Clute is optimistic. She said her campaign isn't looking for the big donations, but lots of little ones, like the $15 check Mary Jane Zody wrote. Zody's motivation was simple: "We need more female senators," she said. Plus, "[Clute's] starting with a clean slate."
Clute says that a Mason/Dixon poll released last week that showed she would win 19 percent of the Democratic vote (compared to 56 percent for Robb) will help her.
"What they needed to go out and raise money was this poll we just got," she said.
The poll, which had a 3.5 percent margin of error, showed her defeating North head-to-head, 34 percent to 31 percent.
She insists that former governor Douglas Wilder's decision not to run will help her. She hopes to attract black votes that would have gone to him.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB