Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 3, 1994 TAG: 9405030170
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a mailing received by some voters Monday, Voit accused his opponent for a two-year council seat of being a captive of "special interest" groups, suspicious of business and a waffler on taxes.
Wyatt's campaign called Voit's flier "shameless fear-mongering" and "a last-ditch attempt to sway the voters with negative scare tactics."
In response, Voit claimed that Wyatt and her supporters have made statements implying that he is a racist. "It's very nasty stuff," Voit said.
The exchanges came on the last day of the campaign. Here's a blow-by-blow account:
First, Voit sent out a mailing to some voters in the city comparing a list of his views to what he said were Wyatt's views.
Voit's mailing says Wyatt "Initially supported tax increases - now claims to be against a tax increase."
Wyatt said she has always spoken out against any tax increase, and has never indicated any doubt on the issue. She said she took Voit aside after one candidates' forum and told him so.
Reached Monday night, Voit said he based his comments on what "sources" within the Democratic Party have told him and on a Feb. 22 article in the Roanoke Times & World-News.
The story described a questionnaire by the Progressive Democratic Coalition, a group that helped Wyatt secure the Democratic nomination.
The article says that one of the questions on the PDC survey asks whether they would - in the newspaper's words - support "raising city taxes to increase funding to public schools." Voit said that it wasn't until later that Wyatt distanced herself from that and went on the record against raising taxes. That, Voit said, shows she waffled on the tax issue.
But Wyatt said the newspaper article mischaracterized the PDC's candidate survey. She says the PDC's questionnaire never mentioned a tax increase to fund education.
In a telephone interview late Monday, Wyatt read what she said was the actual question: "With declining state funding of public education a worsening situation, what would you do at the local level to raise the amount of funding for our public schools? Be specific."
She said her response was that the city should shift funds within the existing budget so that a greater percentage goes toward education.
After hearing that the newspaper's story about the PDC's questionnaire might have been wrong, Voit backed down from his stance that Wyatt was waffling on taxes. "If she is opposed to a tax increase, I'm glad to hear it."
Wyatt also argued that other parts of Voit's flier - which said she was a special-interest captive and "suspicious of business" - also were inaccurate.
Voit said he stands by those statements.
Meanwhile, in responding to Wyatt's complaints, Voit countered that his character is being smeared over a comment he made in another newspaper article.
Voit said in the article that the city's budget will be strained because its population is becoming "older, poorer and blacker," and those groups tend to need more aid from social services programs.
He said that he's been told that someone is circulating fliers within the black community that take that statement out of context and suggest he is a racist. He said he doesn't believe Wyatt produced the fliers, but "I'm sure it's being done with her acquiescence."
Also, he said Wyatt appeared on a talk show on WTOY, a radio station that has a primarily black listenership, and made statements implying he was a racist. He said someone on the broadcast suggested Voit favored sending blacks back to Africa and that Wyatt "laughed and snickered."
"It's more than unfair," Voit said. "It's vicious."
Wyatt said Monday night that she had nothing to do with the flier. But she said she has seen it, and it merely quotes Voit's statement from the newspaper article.
As for the radio broadcast, Wyatt said she never called Voit a racist. "The word racist never came out of my mouth," she said. "My comment was: Any time you lump any one group of people together for any reason, it's damaging. ... It's devastating when you lump people together and make assumptions about all of them. It's called stereotyping."
Voit says he was trying to make a point about complicated demographic trends and how the city is changing. He said his concern is that the city needs to become more efficient so it can provide the services to the growing number of people who will need them.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB