Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Cupp, the Montgomery County Republican chairman, made official what observers had long expected: 39th District Republicans will have to choose between Cupp and early-bird candidate Gary Weddle.
Their competition will end in a GOP mass meeting May 20 at Dublin Middle School. The Senate district includes Montgomery, Grayson, Smyth and parts of Carroll and Pulaski counties.
"What it boils down to now is who can convince the most people to show up to Dublin," Weddle said. The meeting is open to any registered voter who lives in the district.
Weddle said the state party considers the race for Marye's seat one of the top three Senate campaigns in Virginia, one crucial to the Republicans' hopes to take control of the General Assembly.
Marye, a senator since 1973, hasn't had an opponent in 12 years. He is to announce his election plans after next week's General Assembly veto session. Marye, a 69-year-old beef cattle farmer, retired from the Army as an officer in the 1960s.
Cupp and his allies - including Radford lawyer Jimmy Turk, who pulled out of the race last month - depicted the 55-year-old Ironto native as more electable, effective, experienced and able to raise money than Weddle.
On his campaign themes, though, Cupp differs little from Weddle. Both have given top priority to economic development, along with education and boosting Southwest Virginia. Cupp also mentioned crime, welfare reform and "family values" as his other issues.
"I find us very similar, I would generally say," Cupp conceded.
He pledged to run a clean campaign and to observe the "11th commandment" often cited by former President Reagan: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."
Turk saw the big turnout Tuesday as less a mark of dissatisfaction with Weddle than an indication of Cupp's popularity. Cupp also won't have to face the prospect of a charge by Democrats that he moved into the district just to run for the Senate. That issue could have been used against Turk and may be against Weddle, who is moving from Radford to Draper in Pulaski County in May.
"That's not a stab against Gary, it's just who I think is going to be more effective," Turk said.
Weddle called the residency question a "complete nonissue." He grew up in Blacksburg, which is in the 39th District, and continued to vote in that district until the General Assembly moved Radford out of the district in 1991.
Weddle, 34, owns clothing stores in Radford and Blacksburg and served a term on the Radford City Council. In 1992, he challenged Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and lost with 37 percent of the vote. He didn't win any of the 9th District's 23 counties and cities.
But Weddle rejected the suggestion that he's any less electable than Cupp. He noted that Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Virginia House Minority Leader Vance Wilkins, R-Amherst, both lost races before winning their offices.
"It really is not a good thing for us to do to write off candidates," Weddle said. "If we're going to do that, then maybe we ought to write Pat off, because he lost to Nick Rush."
In May 1993, Rush, a Montgomery County supervisor, stunned Cupp by winning the GOP nomination to seek the 12th District House of Delegates seat. Rush lost the election to Democrat Jim Shuler.
Cupp owns BCR Real Estate, a Blacksburg-based development and property management firm. His business history in Montgomery County goes back to the early 1960s, when he graduated from Virginia Tech after growing up in Narrows. Cupp is married to Sandy Cupp and has a daughter and three young grandchildren, who joined him in making the announcement Tuesday.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB