Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
He'd been training almost two years - reading the literature, consulting with lawyers and educators, listening to political advisers.
And now charter schools, his legislative showpiece, was on the chopping block. Brandon Bell was prepared for a fight.
``Oh, I'll have something to say,'' the Roanoke County Republican said with a wink, just before the start of a hearing early this month in the Education and Health Committee, his bill's first Senate obstacle.
``Senator Bell?'' piped up committee Chairman Elliot Schewel, just as Bell walked to the podium.
``Yes, sir,'' Bell responded.
``We have a subcommittee report on this bill, right? We're going to study it?''
``That's correct.''
Then the committee killed the bill.
No discussion. No debate. Bell walked away and took his seat.
Charter schools legislation was supposed to consume the legislature and become the election-year crescendo of the Roanoke Valley's first-term senator. It would be a public elbow-rubbing with the Republican governor. His piece de resistance.
Many expected Bell's charter schools bill to define his legislative career.
Critics say it did. Not as the innovative, practical, conservative reformer that Bell envisioned himself. Rather, opponents paint him like the failed bill: recklessly controversial and more partisan than practical - an easy kill for Democrats.
``I don't think that's a fair assessment,'' said Bell, who pledged to keep fighting to allow for independent, quasi-private local schools in Virginia.
``Sure, it was disappointing'' when charter schools failed, he said, ``but sometimes good laws take a while to pass.
``But, yes, now would have been a good time for it to pass.''
Charter schools legislation will return to the Virginia legislature after November, when all 140 General Assembly seats are up for election.
The freshman senator from the Roanoke Valley has no such guarantee.
Democrats make no secret that they consider Bell vulnerable and plan to campaign hard to strip away his seat. The state party is expected to target him with money and manpower.
It's not that the 36-year-old newlywed with the moppy brown hair has made mortal enemies in Richmond; most say he is well-liked in the politico crowd.
But it takes more than congeniality to win an election, and Democrats take pleasure in criticizing him on stump-speech specifics.
Rarely does he rise on the Senate floor to contest legislation. The committee hearing during which Bell asks a question is the exception, not the rule.
And, as a lawmaker, Bell has been less than prolific. In four years, he has been chief sponsor of 15 proposed laws. Three have passed - one dealing with the city's Architectural Review Board, another with enterprise zones, the third making minor changes in workers' compensation laws.
Charter schools died twice, being called too drastic a change to enact without study. A tax credit for businesses that donate business equipment to schools fell to the budgetmeisters.
A requirement that the governor give 30 days' notice before making appointments that the General Assembly must confirm never was voted on.
School vouchers: killed by a Senate committee.
``In four years, he's got zip, zilch, zero,'' said one Roanoke Valley Democrat, who said he considers Bell a friend. ``I don't like to say that about a friend, but in politics, it's a disaster.''
``What, should I have 15 or 20 new laws just so I can put them on a campaign brochure?" Bell countered. ``You can do a lot of work with people outside of what's normally considered the only duty of the job.
``We don't need to kill more trees, as they say, just to clutter up the code.''
A key for GOP control
In one sense, it was an accomplishment that Bell, a political neophyte, made it into the legislative fray at all.
He first earned local stature as the head of a civic group, not a political one. He gained prominence through a failed push for consolidation of Roanoke and Roanoke County, not the typical political conquest of the career-forging type.
In 1991, people gave the 32-year-old computer salesman little chance of victory when he took on Sen. Granger Macfarlane, who - like all but one of the 21st District senators before him - was a Democrat, long plugged in to the politics of the Roanoke Valley.
Then, even when Bell won a commanding victory at the polls, Democrats gave him little chance of success in Richmond.
Now, four years later, Republicans talk of winning a first-ever Senate majority, and say Bell's seat is a key to that transformation. Young and popular among his partisan colleagues, he has shown he can win an election with little financing, much less all that he is expected to garner this year.
He sponsored the cornerstone of the governor's education reform policy. His accomplishments include work to expand enterprise zones and to give tax breaks to businesses.
``He is a very hard-working, constituent-oriented representative with a very, very incisive understanding of grass-roots politics,'' said Gil Butler, a Roanoke lawyer, developer and GOP activist.
``I'd say he's shown what he can do in a campaign, and that Democrats will be afraid he'll do it again,'' said former Salem Del. Steve Agee, also a Republican.
And he has had his victories.
This week, House and Senate negotiators approved most of Bell's plan to essentially double the state's enterprise zone program, which gives businesses tax incentives to locate in economically depressed areas. The number of approved zones would increase to 50 from 25. More businesses would be able to participate.
Rural areas would be able to participate. The plan is likely to help businesses in downtown Roanoke, already an approved enterprise zone.
``Bell went to the mat to create jobs for the people of the Roanoke Valley,'' state Housing and Community Development Director David Capara wrote, praising Bell for the legislation.
Self-inflicted wounds?
Bell's endeavors, most offered in the two years since Gov. George Allen took office, often have died at the hands of the Democratic naysayers. But critics say Bell's inexperience may have doomed others.
When he proposed cutting money from museums in Martinsville and Staunton to finance Explore Park and Hotel Roanoke, Bell said he was just looking out for his home district.
In Richmond, lawmakers said he broke an unwritten rule by trying to slash someone else's local projects to finance his own.
When he pushed for school vouchers and then charter schools - even though local educators objected - Bell said he was railroaded; vilified back home before anyone even read the bill.
In Richmond, lawmakers said he was throwing away his seat.
Friends call Bell's legislative demeanor reserved.
Enemies call it shallow.
Bell calls his lawmaking resume conservative.
Critics call it flimsy.
Once, before this year's session began, Bell said he proposed a resolution calling for a study of tenant ownership in disadvantaged parts of the state. He sent the idea to General Assembly staffers, who drafted the legislation and sent it back.
But the title pages apparently got mixed up, Bell said, and a Democrat was named as the sponsor. When he realized the mistake, Bell went to the Democrat and confronted her.
``She didn't want to give it up, and when I asked her to put my name on as a co-patron, she said, `No way,''' Bell said.
``I could have gone and put in an identical bill to make sure my name was on it, but she was serious about having it passed and that's all I was worried about.
``Before I got into politics, it was never my chief concern to take credit for things. I just wanted to do them.''
`I'm excited now'
A discussion about Bell's legislative difficulties typically leads to House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, the Roanoke County Democrat who is arguably the most powerful legislator in the state. Cranwell heads the House Finance Committee, which signs off on any law changes that affect state revenue.
``You're writing about what he's done?" Cranwell said of Bell. "You're going to write a short story. He's an extremist, a radical and he wants to cannibalize his home district.''
Two years ago, Bell sponsored a bill that would have given tax credits to businesses that donate equipment to schools. It passed unanimously in the Senate. Then it died in Cranwell's committee.
``From the start, it's been like that,'' said Bell, who accused Cranwell of sabotaging other of his efforts to secure money for the Roanoke Valley. ``That's a lot to have to fight against, especially for someone new.''
When asked if he has a vendetta against Bell - or any local Republican - Cranwell threw up his hands, rolled his eyes to the ceiling and laughed.
``Do you think I have time to worry about killing his bills?'' he asked. ``I have never once targeted any of his legislation.''
Then he paused, thought a moment and pointed his finger.
``Except charter schools. If that ever gets over here, I'll drain the blood out of it.''
Bell has not formally announced his re-election bid, though he acknowledges that's so he can do it on his home turf.
The job, he said, is more difficult and time-consuming than he had expected. But it is also more fulfilling.
``It's a continuous learning process, and a continuing building of relationships. I feel like that's what I've done very well - build those relationships,'' Bell said.
``I expected the day after I was elected that the Democrats would want this seat back the day I took it.
``It's because I was such a surprise to everyone - it caught a lot of people off guard,'' he said.
``That's why I'm excited now. I can look back and talk about what I've done - and actually raise some money this time.''
BRANDON BELL
STATE SENATOR
PARTY: Republican
AGE: 36
OCCUPATION: Vice President, New Options Group Inc., a regional outplacement and career development counseling company. Formerly computer salesman.
POLITICAL BACKGROUND: Elected in 1991.
FAMILY: Married.
Keywords:
PROFILE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB