Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Goode, in a talk to the Roanoke Rotary Club, accused Robb of not standing up against a union-backed bill that would prevent companies from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers.
He charged that Robb hasn't pushed for legislation that would require parents be notified before their juvenile daughters receive an abortion.
And he pointed out that Robb has endorsed allowing openly gay soldiers to serve in the military. "I'm against that," Goode declared.
That line of attack, singling out issues of intense concern to three key Democratic constituencies and opposing them, may seem unusual for a candidate who's seeking the Democratic nomination.
But Goode appears to be pursuing a much different strategy as he approaches the June 14 primary election: trying to persuade voters who don't ordinarily think of themselves as Democrats to take the time to vote in the party's primary for the U.S. Senate.
"Robb is the only candidate with any organizations with him who specialize in get-out-the-vote," said University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato. "He's got the AFL-CIO and the Virginia Education Association." Robb also been endorsed by the National Abortion Rights Action League, and recently made headlines by speaking to a convention of gay-rights advocates.
For Goode to win, Sabato says, the Franklin County state senator must find voters elsewhere, even if they're not regular party activists. "Virgil is depending on a spontaneous reaction occuring on Election Day. If there is all that unfocused rage [against Robb], people just have to be given a tip-off to focus it."
Or, as Goode put it Thursday, "I need the votes of ordinary folks to win. I'm not saying party activists aren't ordinary folks."
But that explains why Goode was talking to the Roanoke Rotary Club in the first place - and was visiting the Rotary Club in Chesapeake the day before. Rotarians are not normally considered a hotbed of Democratic workers. One Roanoke Rotarian, ophthalmologist Ken Tuck, estimated that fewer than one-fourth of the group's members votes Democratic. Tuck said of Goode: "He's appealing to the conservative element, and you'll find that here."
Indeed, Goode took pains to point out to Rotarians that the party primary "is open to every registered voter."
"All you have have to do is go to your regular polling place and you can be a participant in that election," Goode said.
He also joked that some party activists "in some of the Northern Virginia localities [say] I'm regressive and an archconservative."
"I don't run from the conservative label if you're talking about spending money and being tight-fisted," Goode said.
He defended himself as a "progressive" on education, and ticked off a list of educational initiatives he's supported.
But then Goode veered right again. He repeated his now-standard attack on Robb's character for attending parties in Virginia Beach in the early 1980s where cocaine was used. Then he raised a series of ideological issues where he says he differs with Robb.
In a pitch to a crowd dominated by middle-aged businessmen, Goode especially blasted Robb for not taking a position on the striker-replacement bill - "I can tell you I'm against it" - and for not being clear on parental notification. "From what I gather, Robb is against parental notification," Goode said. "I'm for it."
Robb spokesman Bert Rohrer said Robb hasn't taken a position on the striker-replacement bill because the bill isn't likely to pass and is being used by both labor and business as a "divisive" issue to raise money. And he confirmed that Robb has supported parental notification only in "limited situations."
Rohrer, in turn, used Goode's appeal to the Rotarians as another opportunity to depict the challenger as too conservative. "It appears as if Senator Goode has hit upon a novel idea of expanding the Democratic Party," Rohrer said. "If that's the way he feels, perhaps he should re-examine his own party alignment."
Also challenging Robb are Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute and Nancy Spannaus, a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
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