Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Republicans in the governor's office and the Democrats who run the General Assembly were in rare agreement Tuesday: They were saying the same things - but about each other.
Gov. George Allen is too confrontational with the legislature. No, the Democrats are too confrontational with the governor.
The public is mad at Allen for trying to cut popular programs. No, the public is mad at Democrats for killing Allen's tax cuts and spending cuts.
Allen's in such bad shape politically, he's forced to barnstorm the state, trying to rewrite history about who did what to whom during the General Assembly. No, it's the Democrats who are trying to rewrite history.
Actually, both sides were on the road Tuesday, and Roanoke got more than an earful, as both Allen and House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County hopscotched through Western Virginia trying to put their spin on the state's budget.
In the month since the General Assembly adjourned, it's become something of a ritual: Allen has been going to schools and factories and civic club meetings to make his case that the Democrats "obstructed" his "common-sense proposals" to cut state spending.
Meanwhile, General Assembly Democrats - complaining that Allen is skillfully using the "bully pulpit" of the governorship to command attention wherever he goes - have been putting together their own road shows.
Tuesday, Cranwell and Alexandria Del. Marian Van Landingham - the sponsor of this session's education bill - took a campaign-style swing through Western Virginia, whose rural school districts they say would be the primary beneficiaries of the bill.
Cranwell grumbled that Allen was scheduled to appear in many of the same places Tuesday that the Democrats were, effectively stealing the headlines they'd hoped to make. "Today, he's following us around the state, using the bully pulpit to keep us from getting the message out," Cranwell said.
And just what is the Democrats' message?
Mostly, it's that Allen's budget cuts would have been bad for Virginia. Cranwell toted along charts showing that the amount Allen wanted to borrow for prisons equaled the amount he wanted to cut taxes. In short, Cranwell said, Allen wanted to cut this generation's taxes and stick the next generation with the debt for prisons.
"The facts need to be repeated because we have an administration that is continuing to rewrite history," he charged.
At each stop, there was some local flavor, too. In Roanoke, the Democrats huddled in the shadow of the First Union Tower, gritting their teeth in the wind. From there, though, the television cameras could get a shot of the Hotel Roanoke in the background when Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum pointed out that Allen tried to cut funding for programs at the hotel's conference center.
"He tried to hamstring one of the most innovative economic development initiatives we've ever had in the Roanoke Valley," Woodrum charged.
"Yes, he did," interjected Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, who stood alongside, holding Cranwell's charts and serving as a one-man amen corner.
In Richmond, an Allen spokesman said he wasn't surprised that Democratic leaders have taken to the road.
"They got home and their constituents were absolutely baffled by what they did, so they found the need to go around the state to rewrite history," said press secretary Ken Stroupe.
But what about Allen's original budget proposals that would have cut funding for the Hotel Roanoke?
"They're living in the past," Stroupe said of the Democrats. "We need to talk about what's on the table now."
And that means the latest round of budget amendments Allen proposed this week. But Cranwell and other Democrats complained they hadn't had time to study those or any of the other changes Allen is proposing.
"When previous Republican governors proposed significant alterations to any of my bills, I was told well in advance," Woodrum said.
Now, he said, Democratic legislators are getting last-minute calls from low-ranking aides; he received one at 10 p.m. recently.
"This is not courteous to the General Assembly or courteous to the public," Van Landingham said.
But it shouldn't be surprising, said Ray Garland, a former Republican legislator from Roanoke who now writes a syndicated newspaper column about Virginia politics.
"Those previous Republican governors were operating from a very weak base in the legislature," he said. Now the General Assembly is almost evenly split.
And Allen's spokesman wasn't especially sympathetic to the Democratic complaints about not being consulted. "If they disagree with the governor's actions, they'll have an opportunity during the veto session [on April 5] to take any actions they choose."
by CNB