Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994 TAG: 9406080066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But on this issue, Roanoke County Supervisor Ed Kohinke says his mind's made up: He won't be running for re-election next year.
"I never really had my heart set on running for re-election," he said Tuesday, explaining that he always planned on one four-year term.
In a news release, he wrote: "My term expires Dec. 31, 1994, and by then I will be ready to do something else with my life."
Since being elected, Kohinke has had a daughter, which "changed things a lot" and consumed a lot of his time. He said he decided to announce now, with 18 months left in his term, because he wanted to give any potential candidates plenty of notice so they could mount a campaign.
His Catawba Magisterial District is the largest geographically in the county. He said it takes at least a year to campaign there and get to know the people.
He said he knows of "not a soul" interested in running for his seat.
Kohinke is perhaps the least predictable supervisor, frequently changing his position on issues as discussion goes on. He said it's a tactic he has used to attempt to elicit his constituents' views. This "so-called indecisiveness," he said, "is just the way I've always been."
He also is well-known to folks in the county and the press as a prolific faxer, generating a voluminous number of memos and letters to fellow board members and reporters on a regular basis.
In an April 7 memo defending his support of the county's cat ordinance, Kohinke mentioned his plans for a second term: "When I run for re-election in 1995, I welcome an opponent who will hold the cat ordinance against me."
He said he talked about re-election in memos such as that because "no one wants to 'lame duck' themselves too soon."
Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix, whose term ends at the same time Kohinke's does, said he has not decided whether to run again. He said he was surprised at Kohinke's decision.
"I know he had alienated some people," Minnix said, "but I thought he could do some fence-mending."
by CNB