Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501090060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When Roanoke City Council adopted its legislative wish list in December, Vice Mayor John Edwards - not Mayor David Bowers - was pushed forward to do the talking, blasting "some people in the General Assembly" whose conservative-inspired education reforms would really "undercut" the public schools.
When the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors had valley legislators in for a chat last week, Hollins District Supervisor Bob Johnson was the most vocal, interrogating Republican state Sen. Brandon Bell about just why he thinks his proposed "charter school" bill is such a great idea.
That's just the beginning.
Monday, Edwards plans to ask City Council to pass a resolution condemning the proposed charter schools. Johnson hopes to get the supervisors to do the same Tuesday.
The debate over Gov. George Allen's call to set up experimental, quasi-independent "charter schools" within the public school system may be a statewide issue; but in the Roanoke Valley, it's also serving as the vehicle for Democrats to begin their 1995 election challenge to Bell.
It's not lost on Republicans that the two local officials who have been most outspoken against Bell's charter school bill - Edwards and Johnson - are the two Democrats most frequently mentioned as Bell's opponents this fall.
``It makes you wonder how much is blatant politics,'' Bell says. ```Oh, it's Bell and we want to go after him.'''
Other Republicans don't wonder at all; they're certain that Roanoke Valley Democrats are targeting charter schools to soften up Bell for the fall campaign.
"They're in an attack mode against Brandon because they don't know who is going to run against him and they can't strike any positive chords on their own," says Trixie Averill, a GOP activist from Roanoke County.
Whatever the reasons, this much is certain: Bell will occupy an unaccustomed spot at center stage during this year's General Assembly, which convenes Wednesday.
In his first three years in Richmond, Bell has not had a high profile. Roanoke Valley Democrats vie with each other to come up with the most colorful - and derogatory - description.
"Invisible," Johnson calls him.
"Caspar the friendly ghost," chimes in Roanoke Democratic Chairman Al Wilson.
Bell and his supporters counter that he is, after all, still a freshman - and a freshman member of the minority party, to boot.
"That's still a Democratic-controlled legislature, let no one forget that," Bell says.
Bell also points to legislative successes that he believes have been overlooked - securing state funding last year for Explore Park, for instance.
"I know of no one who thinks Explore would be getting dollar one if Granger Macfarlane were still state senator," Bell says.
Macfarlane - who lost to Bell in 1991 and is eyeing the Democratic nomination in hopes of a rematch - was Explore's most dogged critic in the legislature.
This time around, Bell isn't likely to be overlooked, no matter what he does - or doesn't do.
An activist Republican governor with a sharply defined - some would say partisan - agenda has put all GOP legislators in a brighter spotlight. The charter schools bill - which Bell will introduce on Allen's behalf - will put the Roanoke Valley senator in the middle of a major legislative controversy with statewide ramifications.
And then there those Democrats back home who already are moving to define Bell's legislative agenda in the worst possible terms.
Both House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County and Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum of Roanoke have made a point of attacking charter schools, warning that they'd lead to "resegregation" of public classrooms and drain money from existing schools.
With so much attention focused on Bell's main legislative initiative, and a tough re-election battle looming ahead, Republicans agree that this will be a crucial session for Bell.
"His actions during the session are going to be very important," said Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, whose House district overlaps Bell's Senate district in Southwest Roanoke County. "He's going to be watched by his opponents and any misstep could hurt him."
Those opponents say they're mystified why Bell has chosen to champion charter schools, and are convinced it's a political mistake to tamper with public schools.
"The city School Board has come out against them and the county School Board is about to," Johnson said. "Just who the heck is he working for? If nobody wants them, is everybody wrong and he's right?"
Edwards warns that charter schools are "a Trojan horse for the voucher program" and suggests there's only a narrow, ideological base of support for them. He thinks Bell simply has picked charter schools as "an issue to ride."
"He's talked to the governor and gotten himself put at the forefront of this because he knows he's facing a tough re-election and he needs the press because he hasn't done anything," said Wilson, the city Democratic chairman. "I think he's made a horrible mistake, a political miscalculation."
Republicans don't see it that way at all.
From a political standpoint, Griffith said, it doesn't matter whether Bell's charter school bill passes or fails.
"Even if charter schools get bottled up, he certainly has been one of the major players in the debate. I don't think the public expects you to win every battle you take on, but they do expect you to fight for what you believe in."
Averill is more blunt. Charter schools are a winning issue, she says, because "education is close the hearts of everybody" and education reform is always popular.
"The more Democrats attack him, the more publicity he gets," she said.
Bell said no one should be surprised he's embraced charter schools. For one thing, he grew up in a family of teachers in Mississippi and now sits on the Senate Education and Health Committee. Moreover, he talked a lot about offering more school choices in his first campaign. This is the result.
Besides, Bell believes voters want to have more educational options - and more parental control over their children's education, which he says the parent-run charter schools would provide. Democrats, he says, have misread the public's mood.
"I think they're missing the boat entirely."
Democrats, though, think Bell will face other political difficulties in this session.
"Unfortunately for Brandon Bell, the governor has placed him in a box," Johnson said. "I find no groundswell of support for cuts in Explore, the Hotel Roanoke, the Transportation Museum. I think if Brandon Bell doesn't stand up and fight for what has already been achieved, mainly at the behest and lobbying of former Senator [William] Hopkins, I think you'll see a lot of people who have supported Republicans in the past awfully upset."
Johnson said he was referring to "establishment" voters in affluent sections of the city.
Bell, not surprisingly, doesn't see things that way, either.
"I don't think Republicans are going to be in a bind. The governor has put forward some very aggressive initiatives. Some of the specific cuts I don't agree with, but I agree with his thinking to allow people to keep some of the money that's rightfully theirs."
He says he can work to restore certain funding without opposing the governor outright.
However, Virginia Tech political analyst Bob Denton said Johnson may have touched on Bell's principal weakness.
Charter schools won't make or break Bell, Denton said.
"It's only a single issue; he needs to be associated with multiple issues."
Bell especially needs to be identified with regional issues, Denton said. By supporting such conservative litmus-test issues as tax cuts and school choice, "he's playing national party politics" rather than carving out an identity as a champion of local concerns.
"I think he'd be somewhat foolish to be totally and 100 percent behind Allen's budget," Denton says. "He will not be re-elected just because he's a devotee of George Allen. When it comes down to it, local races are just that: local."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995 POLITICS
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