Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994 TAG: 9404260028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The campaign leading up to the May 3 elections has lacked the sound and fury that at times have characterized city politics. But don't let that fool you: The faces are changing, the symbolism is changing, the issues are changing.
Of the seven candidates seeking a total of four seats, only Democrats William White and John Edwards are incumbents - and neither of them are council veterans of long standing. White is completing his first four-year term; Edwards, appointed to fill the seat vacated by Beverly Fitzpatrick's resignation, has been on council only a few months.
Moreover, the two incumbents who won't be back are Howard Musser and James Harvey. That means something. In addition to former Mayor Noel Taylor, Musser and Harvey were the dominant figures in municipal politics of the '80s and, to some extent, into the '90s.
Musser, in ill health, chose not to run for re-election. Harvey was defeated in the Democratic primary - which itself was a departure from the practice in recent decades of parties' nominating their candidates in mass meetings.
Both men reached council riding crests of a middle- and working-class anti-tax revolt. As symbols of that movement, Musser and Harvey combined the best and worst of populism. They had a good feel for the popular will, and strove persistently to implement it. But their efforts were tinged with an air of resentment, sometimes ill-founded and often a poor basis for decision-making.
Over time, as happens in a democracy, the anti-establishment symbols became part of the establishment, victims of their electoral and policy victories. David Bowers won the mayor's job with a promise to "take back City Hall." Cutting taxes has ceased to be a driving issue. And on other issues, such as the ignoble two-for-one pension deal for council members and top administrators, Musser and Harvey became the resented rather than the resenters.
Now the two "outsiders" running for City Council are candidates for the two years remaining in Fitzpatrick's term: school teacher Linda Wyatt, who defeated Harvey in the Democratic primary; and Republican John Voit, who has no experience in city government.
Wyatt has ridden an insurgency against her party's establishment by unionists, gays, teachers and liberals. With her sense of government as a kind of guarantor of employment, there'd be no mistaking her for a Republican. Nor is there any mistaking Voit for a Democrat, with his conception of government as getting in the way of employment.
Meantime, however, the five-way race for the three four-year terms is rich with signs of an evolution in city politics away from us-vs.-them themes - whether the divide be ideological, taxophobic, racial, age, economic, partisan or place of residence - and toward clarifications of what Roanoke's future should be and how it can get there.
This has been evident in public forums in which, instead of whacking away at each other, candidates have stressed the expertise and experience they'd bring to city problems: White as an accountant, for instance, and Republican John "Jack" Parrott as a construction engineer who has worked on regional municipal projects.
A focus on the future is evident, too, in how the candidates have been expanding the definition of "economic development."
In the past, economic development has been an apple-pie-and-motherhood issue that almost everybody could support because almost nobody bothered to define it. Perhaps this year's candidates aren't giving it profound thought, but they are advancing the discussion.
White, for example, says the city's No. 1 problem isn't even economic development, but the numbers of young people who have given up on themselves and society. Right, says Parrott: Economic development isn't the city's No. 1 problem - it's the No. 1 solution, by enlarging the tax base to provide money to help serve needs.
Edwards, the former U.S. attorney, draws Roanokers' attention to the point that economic development is more than just creating industrial parks; it's also education, transportation and quality of life.
Republican Barbara Duerk stresses the importance of livability and attractive neighborhoods in drawing jobs to Roanoke.
Democrat Nelson Harris - School Board member, Baptist minister, and a politician with considerable promise - argues that economic development can't move forward with a generation of children left behind in poverty.
A useful debate in a changing city. An important - if quiet - election. Noticing and taking part in it would be worth Roanokers' effort.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB