Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994 TAG: 9404260143
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Soon it got bigger: Why not put it on TV? Public television station WBRA offered its studios and cameras. Channel 9, the public-access channel on Cox Cable, would broadcast it from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. Viewers from all over the city could call in.
White arranged for an announcement in the newspaper and to have fliers printed and delivered to every household in South Roanoke.
And, White says, he got commitments from the city Republican and Democratic chairmen that their candidates would be there.
But last week, it all fell apart. He heard from WBRA that the Democrats had said they weren't coming.
He tried to get word one way or the other, he says. Finally, on Monday, he called the whole thing off.
Now he's steamed, especially since some candidates have complained that the newspaper and television stations haven't paid enough attention to their campaigns. "Here they were moaning and groaning and bellyaching about not getting any press - and we're gonna give it to 'em on a silver platter. Here it is, guys; run with it."
Now the Republicans are trying to get some political mileage out of the cancellation. They've scheduled a press conference today to discuss - along with the subject of the Girls, Girls, Girls dance club - how "Democrat council candidates refuse to debate Republican candidates on a live, two-hour program scheduled by WBRA Television."
Al Wilson, the city Democratic chairman, says it's much ado about nothing. The Democrats have gone head-to-head with the Republicans at forums all over the city, he said, and have no fear of debating.
Wilson said it's simply a scheduling problem. One of the Democrats, Linda Wyatt, was scheduled to be at a National Education Association conference in Washington, D.C., and others had planned to go to a dinner that night for city firefighters.
Most community groups set up their forums well in advance, Wilson said. In this case, Wilson said, White called April 8 and "he said, `Your candidates will be there because I've done all this work.'''
Wilson said he didn't know about the candidates' schedules, so he told White he'd get back to him - and he never made a commitment that the Democrats would be there.
White said, however, that one WBRA employee told him that Wilson indicated he was afraid the forum would be biased against the Democrats. The former president of Neighbors in South Roanoke, Barbara Duerk, is running for council as a Republican.
Wilson said he did tell WBRA that he was concerned that only people from South Roanoke would be allowed into the studio audience, "which was a bit off-putting." Other groups have held forums, he said, but they don't put restrictions on who can come.
"If you control the audience, you control the questions, to a certain extent," Wilson said.
Wilson also suggests that the group really doesn't represent its neighborhood. "Neighbors in South Roanoke meets about as often as a solar eclipse," Wilson said. "I've talked to people who live in South Roanoke, they don't even know who Peter White is."
White says there was no reason to worry that the forum would be biased against the Democrats. The neighborhood's affluence might make many people think it's a Republican stronghold, but many top Democrats have come from South Roanoke, including former council member Bev Fitzpatrick Jr. and former state Sen. Granger Macfarlane.
White says he was just trying to give people a chance to participate in their political system. But his time was wasted, he says. "I don't ever want to go through that again."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB