Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 19, 1994 TAG: 9405190126
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Goode is well-known to me from our years together in the General Assembly. I was there in 1973 when he created quite a stir by a smashing victory at age 27 in a special election for the Virginia Senate to represent a wide swath of Southside running south from Roanoke to the North Carolina line. So diligent has he been in representing his constituents there has been scarcely the glimmer of a serious challenge since his arrival.
Most people in Franklin, Floyd, Henry and Patrick counties and in Martinsville would call themselves conservatives, and they generally vote Republican for president. They like guns and are suspicious of all initiatives of the federal government except Social Security, dairy-price supports and tobacco allotments. They have mixed feelings about labor unions, but their conservatism doesn't extend to a love of banks, utilities and Wall Street.
That conservative populism pretty well sums up Virgil Goode during his 20 years in Richmond. But it wouldn't necessarily characterize his service in Washington. In a nod to political reality, he recently said, "I represented my district. If I were elected to the U.S. Senate, my focus would be all of Virginia." Whether this will be enough to satisfy the liberal zanies who call the dance whenever large numbers of Democrats congregate remains to be seen. Probably not.
But if they could hear one of his Rooseveltian tirades against the malefactors of great wealth, they might change their tune. Goode generally speaks softly - in a delightful drawl redolent of the Old South - but when he gets going on one of his favorite themes of the little man being squeezed, he can really pour it on, as his father could before him.
Virgil Goode Sr., the longtime Franklin County commonwealth's attorney, was an anti-Byrd Democrat in the days when that took some courage. I heard him in Rocky Mount shortly before he died and can see where his son absorbed that mastery of stump rhetoric that is a family trademark.
Not that it should bother Democratic primary voters, but there has been more than a whiff of demagoguery in Goode. The targets he chooses generally have no popular constituency of their own with which to hit back. He made his reputation castigating Appalachian Power Co., whose vision created Smith Mountain Lake which brought much prosperity to his area. Back in the '70s, when utilities had to expand capacity in the face of spiraling interest rates and rampant inflation, Goode was always there to say them wrong. Voters loved it, of course, but what he never told them was that Apco was one of the most cost-efficient utilities in the nation.
Goode has a deserved reputation for fiscal conservatism, but he generally chooses small-change issues to make his point. You will never see him taking on real budget-busters that have the support of large groups. He was in the state Senate when then-Gov. Robb signed legislation directing the state to take over 100 percent of the cost of funding pensions for state employees. He was there when then-Gov. Baliles put through retirement at 55 with full pensions for state employees and teachers. He was there when then-Gov. Wilder opened a window of opportunity for retirement at age 50. These were billion-dollar questions for taxpayers, but nary a peep was heard from their old friend Virgil.
If there has been a degree of cowardice in Goode's posturing as the taxpayers' friend, he has taken some commendably conservative positions in the current campaign. He has come out against statehood for the District of Columbia, which Robb and Clute support. He has gone on record supporting Virginia's right-to-work law and against the striker-replacement bill being debated in the Senate, where Robb is doing his customary fudge. Goode opposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment a dozen years ago and now opposes government funding of abortions.
In his greatest break with the mindset of his party, Goode raises several red flags on President Clinton's national health proposals. "I would like to see universal coverage," he says, "but I would not support it until I knew precisely how much it costs and who is going to pay for it."
Goode already has shown considerable grass-roots support in rolling up some 30,000 signatures on his petitions in less than a month - a truly tremendous achievement for anybody. That suggests some helpful labor unions, despite the fact the state AFL-CIO has just endorsed Robb.
But since the mid-April filing deadline, Goode has been touring the courthouses trying to rally the old network of traditional Virginia Democrats to save their party. In a small turnout, their support could be very helpful. But he needs a message for that mass of urban Democrats who happily persist in believing two plus two can be made to equal five, and he hasn't yet found it.
Perhaps the answer is for the old fire-eating populist to ride to the rescue of the newly buttoned-down Goode and fling some red meat on the table. He must somehow reach that vast majority of Virginians who have no present intention of voting in this primary with a simple message: You have a stake in my beating Robb even if you don't particularly like Democrats.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
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