Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402200043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There are no billboards, radio commercials or other outward clues that Roanoke Democrats will hold a primary election March 1 - just nine days away.
The six candidates have waged a quiet campaign by telephone and direct mail to reach bedrock Democrats.
Though the primary is open to all registered voters in Roanoke, the candidates expect fewer than 15 percent of the city's 41,000 voters to show up at the polls.
One reason for the expected low turnout is that voters are unaccustomed to selecting a slate of City Council candidates through a primary.
It has been 26 years since city Democrats held their last primary for council. The party's executive committee opted for a primary this year to dilute the power of organized labor and other special interests, which outmaneuvered party regulars at nominating conventions that chose Mayor David Bowers in 1992 and Commissioner of Revenue Marsha Compton Fielder in 1993.
The March 1 primary is such an oddity that Democratic Chairman Allen Wilson held a news conference last week to explain how the process works.
The primary is even more confusing because there will be two contests on the ballot:
Four Democrats competing for three seats with four-year terms.
Two Democrats running head to head for one seat with a two-year term.
The winners earn the right to represent the party in the May 3 general election.
Four seeking three seats
Two incumbent councilmen are among the four Democrats competing for three spots on the general election ballot.
William "Bill" White, 47, is seeking a second term on council. The certified public account has stressed his experience in government service, which includes six years on the city School Board.
John S. Edwards, 50, was appointed to council last fall as a temporary replacement for Bev Fitzpatrick Jr., who resigned to head a regional planning group. Edwards has Democratic credentials that include appointment as U.S. Attorney for Western Virginia by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and a bid for the party's congressional nomination in 1992.
White and Edwards, as incumbents, are considered front-runners.
If so, the fight for the third spot is a contest between a former city councilman who has run in every council race since 1968 and a young Baptist preacher who is making his first bid for elected office.
One party regular put it this way, "I don't know if people are going to be sentimental for Jim Trout, or if they want to have some fresh ideas with Nelson Harris."
Trout, 64, is trying to make a political comeback after consecutive defeats in 1990 and 1992. He served on council from 1968 to 1976 and from 1982 to 1990.
Trout, whose South Roanoke condominium is decorated with sketches of city construction projects with which he was involved in the 1960s and '70s, said his best days are not behind him.
"Talent is the most important ingredient in service on City Council, and success is the greatest story you can read," he said.
"I want to continue it. . . . I'm still growing."
Nelson Harris was still in diapers when Trout first was elected in 1968.
Harris, 28, said that it is time for a new generation to take leadership in the city.
"I think we need some fresh, young leadership emerging in the city for the long run," he said.
Harris, the pastor of Ridgewood Baptist Church, was appointed to the School Board two years ago. The Roanoke native said he would stress issues such as education, neighborhoods and regional cooperation.
Two seeking one spot
The second contest is shaping up as a bitter showdown between a veteran councilman and a political newcomer backed by an upstart coalition of disaffected Democratic regulars.
Jim Harvey is seeking to add two years to a 12-year tenure on City Council.
Schoolteacher Linda Wyatt is making her first bid for elected office after a long involvement with the Roanoke Education Association.
Wyatt has the endorsement of the Progressive Democratic Coalition - a group of teachers, labor leaders, blacks and homosexuals.
Wyatt has declined to criticize Harvey, but some coalition allies have branded Harvey as a counterfeit Democrat with a "shameful" voting record.
Gary Waldo, staff member with the Roanoke Education Association, has criticized Harvey for voting to give himself and other top municipal officials lucrative "2-for-1" pension benefits.
Waldo also noted that Harvey refused to support Bowers in the 1992 mayoral race after Harvey's ally, Councilman Howard Musser, lost to Bowers in a nomination fight.
"When you don't support people who win the mass meetings, people begin to wonder about your loyalty to the Democratic Party," Waldo said.
In an interview, Harvey dismissed attempts to portray him as someone who has lost touch with the core Democratic constituency.
Harvey, 53, said a few Progressive Democratic Coalition leaders do not speak for the entire black community, rank-and-file union members or even teachers.
Harvey said his support is more broad than core Democratic constituencies. He said, for instance, that middle-class residents of the Williamson Road area remember how he pressed City Council to address drainage problems in their neighborhood.
On pension benefits, Harvey conceded that council "should have left that alone" when it voted in 1992 to add to pension benefits for council members and six council-appointed officials. The vote added Harvey to a list of councilmen who receive two years of credit in the city's retirement system for each year of service.
Harvey, however, declined to say whether he would give up his own 2-for-1 benefits, as several other council members have done.
"I won't make that decision until the day I retire," he said.
Wyatt, 45, said she would push to open council deliberations to prevent "secret deals" like the 2-for-1 pensions or the proposed takeover of Roanoke Gas Co.
Wyatt also said she would seek an elected school board, because council-appointed School Board members lack true independence.
"You would not be muffled by fear of not being reappointed," she said.
The winner of the Harvey-Wyatt contest will get a chance to serve the two years remaining on Fitzpatrick's term.
Harvey said he chose to seek the two-year term because he would like to remain on council until 1995, when the Hotel Roanoke is scheduled to reopen. Harvey is chairman of the commission that is overseeing renovation of the hotel and construction of an adjoining conference center.
Harvey said his decision not to seek a four-year term is not related to his recent bout with lung cancer.
He said his doctors have given him a clean bill of health after removing three-quarters of his right lung and giving him massive doses of radiation and chemotherapy.
"As of this moment, I don't have any of this stuff anymore."
by CNB