
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                   TAG: 9406280001
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAN B. FLEMING
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLUTE CAN BEAT NORTH

GROWING UP in the Depression years of the 1930s, I was raised in a family of strong Democrats tracing our allegiance to the party back to the days of Andrew Jackson. My childhood heroes included the Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and my political bogeymen were Republicans Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover.

It was not until many years later that I grew to respect nearly all candidates brave enough to face the barrage of attacks that greet so many public figures in politics. I even grew to like and respect Republicans such as Barry Goldwater and Robert Taft, men of great personal integrity.

As a Democrat in 1994, I have looked over our field of candidates for the U.S. Senate with considerable dismay. Oliver North scares me, and Sen. Charles Robb worries me. I am not encouraged to read that Marshall Coleman and Doug Wilder are waiting in the wings to run as independents in the fall. The Democrats have three candidates other than Robb, including two mainstream Democrats, Virgil Goode and Sylvia Clute. I reviewed the credentials of Robb, Goode and Clute, and believe all could beat Oliver North.

Incumbent Robb has well-known personal problems, but even more disturbing, oversaw a staff that engaged in illegal criminal activities against fellow Democrat Doug Wilder that are reminiscent of Nixon and Watergate tactics.

Robb ran for the Senate in 1988 as a backer of aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, as was Oliver North, and supported Bush foreign and defense policies, voting for the B-1 bomber and Star Wars. He also cast a key vote in confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. On the positive side, Robb as governor led the way in reviving the Democratic Party in Virginia. In recent months, he has been a backer of President Clinton.

State Sen. Virgil Goode is a dynamic and personable state legislator who represents the old Byrd wing of Democratic Party and, as the Roanoke Times & World-News recently stated, "has a voting record more conservative than that of many Republicans in the state legislature."

Finally I turned to Sylvia Clute, a highly regarded Richmond lawyer noted for her effort in promoting legislative reforms relating to women and children. She has never held public office but has served on many state commissions. She also was co-founder and chairwoman of the Women's Bank in Richmond, and served in the Peace Corps in Nepal. Clute's platform is a progressive one and features increased government help for preventive measures such as early childhood programs in health and education, and long-term care in the home and the community rather than the much more expensive alternatives of prisons and nursing homes. She also wants a transportation policy based on several forms of transport rather than continued reliance on the old pork-barrel highway focus of the past. She supports the Brady bill, a ban on assault weapons and a tax on handguns.

Instead of continuing to rely on dwindling defense spending to support our economy, she wants Virginia to become a leader in converting from defense to environmental technology. Overall, she wants to redirect our federal spending priorities into new approaches for the 21st century to meet the growing demands of society while working to reduce our growing federal deficit.

In 1960, I was a young high-school government teacher and became a fan of John F. Kennedy when he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the West Virginia primary. Almost no one in the state thought he could win because he was Catholic. By default, I became a county chairman for JFK in that heated race, which he won.

Today I sometimes hear the same refrain about Sylvia Clute, "She is a woman and not part of the political establishment and thus can't win." I do not accept this argument any more than I did the one about Kennedy in 1960. I believe Clute is a real winner and can defeat North in the fall. Next week's Democratic primary is the time for those interested in good government to come to the polls and cast their vote for Sylvia Clute for the U.S. Senate.

Dan B. Fleming, of Blacksburg, is author of "Kennedy vs. Humphrey, West Virginia, 1960" and co-author of "By the Good People of Virginia ... Our Commonwealth's Government."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB