Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502130003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Allen Dudley pops open a can of Diet Coke, fires up a Salem Light and reaches for the phone.
It's the second week of this year's General Assembly session and Dudley, a freshman Republican from Rocky Mount, is talking politics with his contacts back home.
It's just minutes before the noon start of the day's House of Delegates session, but that doesn't faze Dudley, who is now leaning back in a leather chair in his office, engaged in conversation with a Floyd County official.
On Dudley's desk is a letter from a Floyd County doctor. It addresses the hot issue of the moment - Gov. George Allen's proposed budget cuts.
The doctor writes that Dudley better oppose cuts to the arts, or ``I will not vote for you even if your opponent is the devil himself.''
Dudley, 47, receives hundreds of letters from constituents - all of which he takes time to read - and the one from Floyd brings a smile to his face.
``Not even the devil himself,'' Dudley repeats during a break in his conversation.
Amy Averill, Dudley's legislative aide, appears. She finds the clock more important than her boss does.
``Allen, the session starts in just a few minutes,'' says Averill, daughter of state Republican insider Trixie Averill of Roanoke County.
Dudley, who never seems in a hurry, nods.
A couple of minutes later, he hangs up, grabs his maroon sport coat and waves at Averill as he leaves his office.
One of the state's tallest legislators at 6-foot-5, Dudley's long legs can gobble up territory in a hurry. As he leaves the General Assembly Office Building, he even stops to shake hands and exchange greetings with a man protesting the governor's budget cuts, then continues the short walk to the House.
He slides into his seat at the end of the second row of House Republicans just as Speaker Thomas Moss of Norfolk picks up the gavel.
Allen Dudley being a member of the House of Delegates generates much stomach acid for many Democrats, whose party held Dudley's 9th District seat for a quarter-century.
Dudley's surprise victory in 1993 over Wes Naff by fewer than 200 votes left Democrats shaking their heads.
So, it's no surprise that Dudley's seat - up for election this year - has been the topic of much conversation. Democrats have targeted the 9th as a priority as they battle to keep their majorities in the House and Senate.
How do a state party official and some local officials describe Dudley?
``He hasn't done anything.''
``Allen Dudley is Allen, George. They're both tall and empty.''
``He's arrogant.''
Gail Nardi, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, says she believes the people of Southwest and Southside Virginia expect more out of their legislators.
Eric Ferguson, Franklin County's Democratic Party chairman, says Dudley has simply followed George Allen's agenda step by step.
But agree with Dudley's political positions or not, Ferguson - and other Democrats, such as longtime Franklin County Sheriff Quint Overton - say that his victory over Naff proves that the Republican isn't walking around in a fog.
Dudley entered the campaign late, weeks after Naff announced his candidacy with the support of Overton; former Rocky Mount Mayor Allen Woody (now deceased); state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount; and the district's retiring delegate, Willard Finney - the establishment.
``I would have bet a thousand dollars Wes Naff was going to win,'' Overton says.
Carthan Currin, who was the county's GOP chairman during the campaign, says of Dudley, ``It took a lot of guts and a lot of belief in himself for Allen to take on that establishment.''
Ferguson, discussing this year's election, says, ``Allen Dudley hasn't made a name for himself, but he hasn't embarrassed himself either.''
So, while Democrats scramble to field a candidate in the district, the incumbent waits, aware of what's going on.
``I'm still moving stuff into my office,'' he says, ``and I don't plan on moving it right back out.''
|n n| Those who know Dudley best say his personality is often misjudged.
He is circumspect - a plodder and a thinker.
``Well, I'm a Libra,'' says Dudley, when asked to explain his low-key demeanor.
The symbol for Libra, the seventh sign of the Zodiac, is a balancing scale.
Currin says Dudley ``plays his cards close to the vest'' and has ``one hell of a poker face.''
But Dudley has another side as well.
``He's got a wit about him that you don't see until you get to know him,'' says Vance Wilkins, the House minority leader from Amherst.
House Clerk Bruce Jamerson knows about it. He and Dudley have a running joke about their favorite beverages: Dudley likes Diet Coke, and Jamerson likes Diet Pepsi. Last year, Dudley bought a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi, emptied the box, put 12 Diet Cokes inside and resealed it. He then gave it to Jamerson as a gift.
But Dudley will tell you that charisma isn't his strong point, although he adds, ``It takes some ego to do this.''
Dudley's style is not to sugar-coat. He tells it like it is when he needs to.
During the 1993 campaign, Dudley was asked by a reporter how he and Naff would deal with Moss, then majority leader of the House.
Said Dudley, ``The only difference is when he holds a legislative caucus, he'll tell Wes Naff what to do, and he'll do it; he'll tell me what to do, and I'll tell him to go to hell.''
Ideologically, Dudley says, he has much in common with George Allen. He's fiscally conservative with a taste for less government. Dudley also likes to talk about family values, something that ``went down the drain'' with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, he says.
``Families stopped working together and spending time together,'' says Dudley, who grew up on a farm in the Union Hall community of Franklin County.
Dudley's father, Forest, was postmaster of Union Hall and also ran a working farm. Dudley's mother still lives there.
``I remember once when my brother [Ken] and I were picking tobacco with my father,'' Dudley says. ``Someone drove up and asked him what kind of tobacco he was growing. He couldn't really answer them.
``The tobacco wasn't important, but working on the farm was. If we were working, we couldn't be getting into trouble somewhere else.''
|n n| Dudley likes to call his political strategy ``nibbling around the edges.''
That's how he campaigned against Naff.
Knowing that Naff was going to carry Franklin County, Dudley worked the outlying areas of the district, winning by large margins in Floyd County, the handful of precincts in Pittsylvania County, and Moneta in Bedford County.
He's using the same philosophy in the House, working behind the scenes in his first term, studying proposed bills and anything else he can get his hands on.
``He reads all the time,'' says Virginia Dudley, who assists her husband while he's in Richmond.
Virginia Dudley says it's not unusual for her to wake up about 5 a.m. and find her husband already reading proposed legislation or one of several newspapers he keeps up with.
Lacey Putney of Bedford, the only independent in the General Assembly, says he has been impressed by Dudley's knowledge and his ability to recognize holes and mistakes in the wording of bills.
``It may make some Democrats mad, but Allen Dudley isn't a lightweight like they're trying to make him out to be,'' Putney says.
Dudley, a vice president at First Virginia Bank of Franklin County, is the only active banker in the House, and he has become a go-to guy for information on banking bills.
When the House was prepared to defeat a bill this year that would have allowed banks to charge a fee for credit reports, Dudley quickly jumped to his feet, explaining that the bill would actually protect consumers by requiring that banks charge only what the credit report costs to produce.
The bill passed by a wide majority.
Dudley's style, in fact, doesn't differ much from that of one of his high school friends - Goode. They both graduated from Franklin County High School in 1965.
It doesn't hurt Dudley to have a friend like Goode, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Finance Committee.
``In my opinion,'' Goode says, ``Allen Dudley has been good to work with.''
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995 PROFILE
by CNB