Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411140019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now a Collins look-alike says she came close to losing hers, too.
In an election-eve "roast" of Democrat Robb - ostensibly to raise money for "widows and orphans" - the College Republicans at James Madison University staged a Collins look-alike contest.
The contestants, masquerading as the former Roanoke beauty queen who reportedly gave Robb a nude massage and later posed for Playboy magazine, included three women and four men in drag - each bedecked with banners declaring them "Miss Clinton Clone," "Miss Bugged Phone" and other pertinent monikers.
In the end, Miss Tax Hike edged out Miss Back Rub (actually a Mr. in a long black dress, but let's not quibble) for the $50 first prize.
But for the winner, Sandi Woodin of Herndon, that's where the trouble started. She's a student teacher. And she says she was told by her student teaching coordinator that if she had already been a full-time teacher, she could have been fired for participating in the bawdy contest.
Woodin now says she wasn't fully informed about the contest when she entered.
``All I thought, I was going to show up, stand in a line and they would say whether I looked like [Collins] or not,'' Woodin said in an Associated Press story. ``I did not know that I was going to be questioned. I didn't know that they were going to put a banner on me or ask me pointed, specific questions about anything. I didn't know how to react.''
The president of the JMU College Republicans says he's sorry. ``I understand how Sandi would be concerned that people in the community might perceive this as a future teacher engaging in an inappropriate action,'' said Scott Pinsker.
As for those widows and orphans - objects of an ill-considered remark by Robb during a debate - the JMU Republicans say they raised $76.50.
Counting the kudos
On the morning after the election for Roanoke County School Board, Michael Stovall's telephone rang constantly. Friends and well-wishers called to congratulate him for winning the Vinton district contest.
Stovall, who won in his first try for elected office, received 20 calls in less than two hours.
Among the callers were Harry Nickens, the Vinton District supervisor; Deanna Gordon, school superintendent; and Barbara "Bootie" Chewning, the outgoing Vinton member on the School Board.
"I feel good about it. I hope I can do well and fulfill the trust that people have placed in me," Stovall said.
Meanwhile, Ray Denney was left wondering whether he might have won if he had remained in the contest for the Windsor Hills district seat.
Denney was the first candidate in Windsor Hills, but he withdrew after several other hopefuls entered the race.
After voting at Oak Grove Elementary School on Election Day, Denney lingered a few minutes to talk about the campaign. All the Windsor Hills candidates seemed to be saying the same thing, he said.
So whom did he support?
Lisa Merrill, he said - because "she is the least offensive."
But enthusiasm was no problem for Joey Ball, who was distributing leaflets for his mother, Evelyn Ball, who finished second to Stovall in the three-way Vinton contest.
Ball, a student at William Byrd High School, said his mother would have won if voters had known her better.
by CNB