Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502200026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
State Sen. Madison Marye gives every indication of being a man who's having too much fun to retire from politics.
The 69-year-old Shawsville cattle farmer and retired Army officer is enjoying a high-profile session this winter while aiding the Democratic charge against Republican Gov. George Allen's now-defeated budget cuts.
Though Capitol press wags joke that Marye is good for one decent anecdote per session, he's been highly visible this winter: pictured and quoted prominently in The Washington Post, for instance, and interviewed by National Public Radio for a story on Virginia politics that aired nationwide.
"He's not being any quieter," quipped Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, who presides over the Senate.
But for months, Marye has been mum about one thing: whether he'll seek another term. He said he'd wait until after the legislative session, which ends Saturday. Meanwhile, at least one and possibly two opponents are eyeing the Republican nomination.
If Marye seeks re-election, he could face his first opposition since 1983, when he won with 55 percent of the vote. (He first won a special election in 1973, was re-elected in 1975 and won by only nine votes in 1979.)
Sitting in his fourth-floor General Assembly Building office, with a view of Capitol Square below, Marye deflected the obvious question: Is he ready to hang it up?
"It's hard to quit," he said. "I'm not going to go any further than that yet. I really haven't decided fully."
Phoning Madison Farm (named after its 18th-century founder) and asking Charlotte Marye, his wife, won't work either. "It doesn't make any difference to me after all this time," she laughed. "He enjoys it. I told him at his age, he could do what he wants."
The personal and the political will figure into his decision. Marye survived a major heart attack in December 1992 that caused him to miss much of the 1993 session. He got back up to speed last year, when he championed an unsuccessful effort to change the state song's racially offensive lyrics. Now, he tries to take a walk every day, and he watches his diet. He said he got a clean bill of health during a December checkup. "I'm feeling good," he said.
Politically, retaining the 39th District seat could be crucial to the Democrats' efforts to maintain control of the Senate.
"He's our best chance of keeping that seat," Beyer said.
Gary Weddle agrees. He's a Radford clothing-store owner and former Radford City Council member who's been eyeing Marye's seat for a year. "Madison will be a tough opponent, there's no question," said Weddle, the only announced Republican candidate. "I honestly believe that the Democratic Party is pressuring Madison to run because they realize the same thing."
Weddle acknowledged that Marye is effective for his district. Weddle said he'll campaign on their different political philosophies and on the future, rather than what's been done for the district in the past. Marye's other potential Republican challenger is Blacksburg real estate broker Pat Cupp.
Marye is a populist Democrat of the old school who employs a folksy wit. But, as a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and chairman of the General Laws Committee, he usually gets what he wants.
In this session, for instance, he played a key role in defeating the riverboat gambling initiative. Meanwhile, he got budget amendments through the Senate for Virginia Tech and Radford University that didn't make it through the House. Marye also took a highly visible stand against Franklin County Democratic Sen. Virgil Goode's bill to loosen the state's concealed-weapons law. "I felt strongly about it, and I got mad about it," he said.
Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield, has sat beside Marye for six years and served with him for 15. "He's pretty damn adept at using folk stories to stop legislation," Saslaw said. "The folksy image sometimes is a trap that people get charmed by."
Republicans are "going to find him very difficult to beat," Saslaw said.
Beyer, who's seen Marye in action for five years, considers him "the best storyteller in the Senate, eternally colorful, funny, smart."
"He makes a great contribution here."
For many years, though, Marye wasn't among the Senate's heavy hitters. In a survey of legislators' effectiveness four years ago, for instance, the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk ranked Marye 21st of the 40 senators, the same ranking he'd held in 1989. But that was before he joined the Finance Committee and became chairman of General Laws.
"Shucks, you can't all be at the head of the pack," Marye said. "Quite frankly, if I'm ranked in the middle of the pack that shows I'm pretty steady and a reliable person. I plug away."
In the 1980s, he was best known for his crusade to get the "bottle bill" through the General Assembly. The law, designed to clean up Virginia's roadsides, would have required refundable deposits for cans and bottles. Marye first introduced it in 1985 to vigorous opposition from the bottling industry. He reintroduced it regularly until it finally made it to the Senate floor in 1991 and narrowly was defeated. He hasn't introduced it since.
Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, known for having a similar style, said neither he nor Marye is as partisan as some of their colleagues.
"All too often we legislators take ourselves too seriously," Trumbo said. "In the heat of debate it's refreshing and sometimes breaks the ice to have a little levity. I think he does that - he provides that moment of sincerity that sometimes escapes us."
If there's one thing that will keep Marye from retiring, it's the prospect of doing anything that might give aid or comfort to Allen, whom Marye blames for setting this session's highly partisan tone.
"I really think that our governor should be selling our state in the Virginia way, rather than running about saying we're overtaxed, everything should be privatized, that the people are not being served by the state," Marye said.
He's served under six governors. He contrasts Allen's style with that of the late Gov. John Dalton, the Radford Republican who served from 1978 to 1982. "Certainly Governor Dalton and I weren't bosom buddies; I took his seat in the Senate," Marye said. "We were bitter political opponents. But when it came to what was better for the state, he had a vision."
And, one more time, what about his vision. Does it include another journey down the campaign trail?
"The fact is that I love it," Marye said. "I can't deny that."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995 POLITICS
Memo: ***CORRECTION***