Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN AND BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
Scott Beard, a painting contractor and former Roanoke County police officer, has told Republican officials that he would be interested in challenging Kelly.
But first, the 32-year-old Buchanan resident must win the party's nomination at its local mass meeting May18.
Beard, who joined the Roanoke County Sheriff's Office as a deputy in 1986, worked there as a K-9 officer and narcotics officer. He remained in Roanoke County until December 1991, well after many of the sheriff's office's duties were taken over by a newly created police department.
A 1986 graduate of the Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy in Salem, Beard previously worked as an animal control officer in Salem.
He also served as the town police officer for Buchanan in 1992.
Kelly, who will finish his first term this year, was elected in 1991.
In other Botetourt campaign news, Democrat C. Benton Bolton, the county treasurer, announced Tuesday he will seek re-election. He calls the computerization of the county's tax records his major accomplishment since taking office seven years ago.
Another Democrat, Valley District Supervisor Bill Loope, announced Tuesday that he will run again.
Loope said his goals are improvements in transportation infrastructure and recreational facilities, and economic and industrial development.
Cranwell on campus
BLACKSBURG - House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, known as a master of parliamentary procedure and deal-making, showed off another skill this week: college lecturer.
The Roanoke County Democrat broke no less than two pieces of chalk Monday night at Virginia Tech while arguing against Gov. George Allen's failed tax- and budget-cutting plans.
Cranwell's messages to students and faculty: Participate in the political process, but bring civility back to it; and for those interested in education, this fall's election will be critical.
If Republicans win control of the General Assembly, Cranwell said, then budget cuts that Democrats restored this winter will be back on the table.
The Young Democrats were hosts for the Tech visit, Cranwell's second to a Virginia campus in a week. Last week, he spoke at Hampden-Sydney College. On Thursday, he'll head to George Mason University in Fairfax County.
Though he took the time to introduce himself to every person in the room and to ask the students where they were from, Cranwell said he isn't running for statewide office. "Heck no," he said right off the bat. "It just doesn't interest me."
Cranwell made similar points about what's at stake in the fall election during a statewide tour with Democratic leaders last month, but Monday's talk included more of the personal side.
"I am really getting weary of being accused of being an elitist, a dictator and all those kinds of things," Cranwell said. "All I can think to do is to go talk to people."
And talk he did.
For more than an hour, the lawyer filled a chalkboard with numbers as he outlined recent budget history. He decried the simplification of issues into sound bites, and the divisive tone of recent partisan rhetoric. He urged the students in the crowd of about 30, including at least two College Republicans - one with a tape recorder - to avoid a "spice-rack mentality," where issues and opinions are automatically labeled liberal or conservative.
Cranwell cited a remark by Republican operative Scott Leake in an April 9 Roanoke Times & World-News article about his challenger, Trixie Averill. Leake said Republicans intend to mount a serious challenge, "because we want to punish Dickie."
"Why would anyone want to punish me for trying to articulate what I think is right?'' Cranwell asked. He cited the fight against proposed cuts to the Meals on Wheels program, public education and social services.
"If that is waste," he said, "then it's time for me to be voted out of office."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB