Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503200017
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Early in 1993, the leader of an unsuccessful fight for a modified ward election system predicted that votes against it might come back to haunt veteran Roanoke City Councilmen Howard Musser and James Harvey.
Charles Green, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, may have been right.
In November 1993, Musser - who suffered a stroke in the middle of his next race - went down to defeat in a battle for commissioner of revenue against Democrat Marsha Compton Fielder.
Early in 1994, Harvey found himself losing a Democratic council primary to Linda Wyatt, an untested Democratic Party activist.
He wasn't alone. Of the six council candidates last year who either favored the current at-large system or took no strong stand on the issue - Harvey, Barbara Duerk, John Voit, Jack Parrott, Nelson Harris and James Trout - only Parrott made it to council.
Meanwhile, all three council candidates who favored a modified ward system - Wyatt and Councilmen John Edwards and William White - won their elections.
In view of upcoming elections next year, council's 5-2 vote Monday against holding a voter referendum on the issue brings up the question: Can candidates' positions on the city election system make or break their campaigns?
Some city political leaders say no, that the ward system is one of many issues that voters consider on Election Day.
``I think it's purely coincidence,'' said Roanoke Democratic Chairman Allen Wilson. ``It's not like the presidential election of 1992, where [the issue] was, `It's the economy, stupid.' I really don't think a stance on ward systems would have anything to do with the way an election came out.''
Roanoke GOP Chairman William Fralin, who himself pushed a modified ward system a few years ago, agreed.
``I really don't think it's a burning issue,'' Fralin said. ``It's nothing along the lines of the Roanoke Gas controversy, or the 2-for-1 [city] pension scandal.''
But Green and other advocates of a modified ward system say it's clear that blacks and Democrats who favor a modified ward system can be a decisive factor in local elections.
Gary Waldo, a Democratic activist and teachers association representative who advocates scrapping at-large elections, said the modified ward issue is a ``litmus test'' issue in the black community.
``I have heard over and over and over again that they believe it is vital for council to allow this issue to go to referendum,'' Waldo said.
``Obviously, in the recent history of elections in the city of Roanoke, the vote of the African-American community is very important in the election of candidates to City Council,'' he said.
Ironically, it may be the current at-large system that gives blacks their power in local elections.
Blacks make up about 23 percent of all registered voters in the city, too small a percentage to elect candidates on their own. But it's a huge bloc that can tip the electoral scales in a close race.
Green said it's a fact that ought to be heeded by Mayor David Bowers, Councilman Mac McCadden and Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, three council members whose terms are up next year. They joined White and Parrott, who won't face the voters until 1998, to defeat Wyatt's proposal.
Only Edwards sided with Wyatt's call for a referendum.
All five council members who voted against the referendum had, at one time or another, campaigned in favor of either modified wards or a referendum on the subject.
Most said they'd changed their minds because they could detect no public support for a referendum. Parrott said he could still support one, but not in the tight time frame Wyatt proposed.
After the vote, Green called them ``liars'' and ``deceivers.'' On Friday, he said Bowers, Bowles and McCadden will feel the sting on Election Day next year.
``Yes, indeed. Most definitely. There will be changes,'' Green said.
by CNB