Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994 TAG: 9405230156
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Goode has been known to stop for gas several times a week, buying a few gallons here, a few gallons there.
Spreading his petrol money around is one small way Goode tries to keep everyone happy. He appears to have succeeded; no one has run against him since Gerald Ford was in the White House.
`Virgil is the quintessential nice guy,'' said Del. Ward Armstrong, a Martinsville Democrat whose district overlaps Goode's.
But the nice guy image that has served him so well in the past may work against him in his uphill bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb in a June 14 Democratic primary.
So far, Goode appears uncomfortable with personal attacks that political analysts say are needed if he is to have any chance of defeating Robb, who is on the defensive about reports that he socialized with a fast crowd at Virginia Beach and admittedly put himself in situations "inappropriate for a married man'' while he was governor in the mid-1980s.
Goode's advisers say the candidate will put aside his nice-guy persona Sunday night in a televised debate sponsored by the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association.
"We'll have some fireworks for you,'' one Goode adviser promised.
The Robb campaign, anticipating an attack, tried unsuccessfully to change a seating arrangement that calls for Goode and Robb to be seated side by side. They will be flanked by two other candidates, Sylvia Clute, a Richmond attorney, and Nancy Spannaus, a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
One source familiar with the negotiations said Robb's staff was concerned that Robb's proximity to Goode could lead to an "unsenatorial'' exchange.
Robb campaign spokesman Bert Rohrer said Friday that the senator is satisfied with the seating arrangement.
If there are fireworks, few stations will carry them live. The hour-long debate, which begins at 7 p.m., comes amid a "sweeps week'' in which stations seek to boost ratings.
In Southwest Virginia, cable viewers can watch the debate on CSPAN and on Franklin County's Cable Channel 12.
Goode's advisers have been pressing him for weeks to go after Robb with the kind of explicit challenge that draws media attention and attempt to frame the primary campaign around character issues.
Goode's harshest attack has been in a letter mailed to 2,000 Democratic activists in which he argued that Robb's personal problems will drag the party down in the fall and possibly endanger the Democrats' majority in both chamber of the General Assembly next year.
A day after the letter was released, however, Goode appeared reluctant to say in person what he had written in the letter. He dodged when reporters asked if he thought Robb, as some Democrats have said, is "unfit for office.''
Goode insisted Friday that he would do what it takes to engage Robb. Yet, he declined to comment on the state's junior senator, except to read excepts from the letter he released two weeks ago.
`He [Goode] hasn't said anything so far,'' said Bert Rohrer, spokesman for the Robb campaign. `He hasn't issued any challenge. All he's done is to waive old newspaper clippings around.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB