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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 28, 1994                   TAG: 9410280043
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN THE 5TH, RE-ELECT PAYNE

Put U.S. Rep. L. F. Payne Jr., of Virginia's 5th District, in the worker category. His re-election Nov. 8 would be good for his district, Virginia and the nation.

In his six-plus years in Washington, the quiet businessman-turned- Democratic-congressman has emerged as a leader in efforts to restore some measure of fiscal sanity to federal finances. He also has become an effective spokesman for the generally rural district that includes Charlottesville, much of Southside, and the Western Virginia counties of Patrick, Henry, Franklin and most of Bedford.

Not every Payne position wins our applause - his protectionist opposition to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, for example, and his pandering efforts against higher cigarette taxes. These positions reflect his district's economic dependence on textiles and tobacco.

Payne's challenger, Charlottesville lawyer George Landrith, is following this year's GOP script. He's trying to paint Payne as a Bill Clinton clone, despite Payne's opposition not only to GATT but also to spending increases Clinton wanted, to employer mandates in the administration's ill-fated health-reform plan, and to the assault-gun ban in the better-fated crime bill. Indeed, a speculative article this fall in the newspaper Roll Call listed Payne, based on his voting record, among 20 Democrats likeliest to switch parties if re-elected amid a new GOP majority.

That's absurd, too. Payne is neither a Republican in Democratic clothing nor an implacable foe of the administration. He supported the president - and as a member of the important Ways and Means Committee, helped write the implementing legislation - for two big successes that already are giving the nation an economic boost: budget measures to reverse the upward deficit spiral, and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Payne also says the president isn't being given appropriate credit for reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy, which is soon to be smaller than at any time since the administration of John F. Kennedy.

Both Payne and Landrith support a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The resemblance, however, ends there.

The absence of such an amendment hasn't kept Payne from working on deficit reduction by making tough budget decisions, including the spending restraints and modest tax increases put in place last year. Regarding those increases, Payne points out that the higher income-tax rates for the affluent affected only 1,500 families in the 5th, while 43,000 working-class families were eligible for lower taxes under the Earned Income Tax Credit introduced into the legislation.

Landrith, by contrast, calls for tax cuts, suggests that military spending may have to go up again - and offers few specifics, other than procedural reforms, for the spending reductions that would be necessary just to offset the tax cuts, let alone bring about a balanced budget.

Landrith comes across as another Yuppie lawyer on the make. Congress needs more down-to-Earth workers like Payne.

Keywords:
POLITICS ENDORSEMENT