Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504100050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Trixie Averill likes to call herself "just a little ol' housewife," but on Saturday a who's who of Republican heavyweights from around Virginia journeyed to Vinton to proclaim her their most important dragon-slayer this election year.
When one of the best-known Republican activists in the state decides to step out from behind the scenes onto the campaign stage - and take on the legislator who has become Gov. George Allen's biggest nemesis, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell - it's no ordinary declaration of candidacy.
It's a full-fledged political happening.
So forget the full slate of local Republican officials and more than 100 whooping, hollering, chanting supporters who turned out to watch Averill blast Cranwell as a "career politician looking out for his special-interest buddies in Richmond."
What really had Republicans talking Saturday were the big guns who showed up to help her do it.
Over there was T. Coleman Andrews III, a Northern Virginia businessman who wants to run for lieutenant governor two years from now. He gave Averill a check for $2,500, declared that "of all the races in Virginia, no task is more important than the one you've agreed to take on," and vowed that "we'll probably have some national Republican figures down this way in the fall" to help her campaign.
Over here was John Hager, a Richmond businessman and state Republican treasurer who also has his eyes on the lieutenant governor's post.
In the back of the room was Richard Cullen, a former federal prosecutor from Richmond who's talking about running for attorney general in 1997.
And hovering over all of them was Boyd Marcus, the kingpin of Republican political consultants in Virginia, the strategist who orchestrated Allen's run for the governorship and is now advising Averill.
"The stature of the people who came from as far away as Richmond and Northern Virginia shows you how important Trixie Averill is and how important this race is," said Roanoke lawyer and developer Gilbert Butler Jr.
Republicans would like to make it an important one, anyway.
For more than a decade, the GOP saw little chance of dislodging one of the legislature's premier deal-makers and coalition-builders, so they left Cranwell to run unopposed. Two years ago, they put up a virtual unknown - Bud Brummit of Botetourt County - who garnered 41 percent of the vote.
Many Republicans think that race exposed Cranwell's vulnerability.
"We had polling data two weeks out that indicated [Brummit] was in striking distance and Cranwell was still mired at 40 percent," said Scott Leake, chief staffer for the Republicans in the General Assembly. "Then Cranwell put a lot of money into the last two weeks.
``Trixie has a lot more community ties than Bud did."
And if the Republicans keep their word, she'll have a lot more money, too. "What we do won't just be symbolic because we want to punish Dickie," Leake said. In the 1993 governor's race, Allen took 63 percent of the vote in Cranwell's district; it's a district, Leake says, that ought to be Republican.
And to GOP leaders, Averill is the No. 1 Republican. "I don't know of anyone in the Roanoke Valley who can claim to have worked harder for the Republican Party than the Averills have," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, who introduced her Saturday.
In her announcement at the Vinton Senior Citizen Center, Averill sounded what are expected to be standard Republican themes this fall - cutting taxes and spending, but speeding up prison construction.
Averill blasted Cranwell for voting against Allen's plan to return lottery revenues to localities, saying Cranwell "wants to keep lottery money in Richmond, where he and bureaucrats can spend it on their pet projects."
Democrats earmarked the lottery funds for education, although Averill accused Cranwell of "playing a cynical, deceptive shell game. The truth is it does not make one single additional dollar available for education. Instead, it merely applies the 'lottery' label to general fund revenues already going to education."
Averill also zeroed in on the role Cranwell has played in rallying opposition to Allen's conservative agenda.
Voters, she said, "don't want a delegate flying around the state pontificating about why we must spend more taxpayer money."
Cranwell could not be reached for comment Saturday, but state Democratic Party spokeswoman Gail Nardi dismissed Averill as an Allen clone.
"Did Mrs. Averill speak those words, or did the governor come up and give his own speech?'' she asked. "If Governor Allen wants to run against Mr. Cranwell, he should move to Vinton and do it in person instead of setting up a crony to do it for him."
Nardi also found it odd that so many big-name Republicans were at Averill's event. "It's kind of a mark of the quality and courage of Delegate Cranwell that they have to send a whole army after him."
TRIXIE AVERILL
Republican candidate for House of Delegates
AGE: 47
OCCUPATION: Homemaker, part-time telemarketer at Orvis.
RESIDENCE: Roanoke County
BACKGROUND: New Orleans native; moved to Roanoke Valley in 1979.
EDUCATION: Attended University of Southwestern Louisiana.
POLITICAL: Longtime Republican activist; served as western field director for George Allen's campaign for governor in 1993; member of Republican State Central Committee.
CIVIC: Appointed by Allen to state board that runs Virginia's Explore Park; now chairs the board.
PERSONAL: Married; two children, ages 22 and 16.
The 14th District includes western Bedford County, eastern, northern and western Roanoke County, southern Botetourt County and Craig County.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB