Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995 TAG: 9506140099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
Amherst County teacher Barbara Coleman, 42, spent the first day of her campaign Tuesday speaking in favor of public education and putting down criticism that she was a third-rate candidate.
Democrats searched for months for a candidate after long-time Sen. Elliot Schewel made a surprise announcement of his retirement.
"This will not be a he vs. she campaign. This will be a campaign on the issues," Coleman said at a news conference. "It is not a campaign about Steve Newman. It is about who represents the issues that fall within the mainstream."
Coleman has been active in the Lynchburg Democratic Party for 20 years, and has volunteered for Schewel and others.
In announcing her candidacy, she spoke out against Republican-favored charter schools, saying they help wealthy students and leave poor students out in the cold. She also said she supports spending more for schools and less for prisons.
Much of her acceptance speech sounded like a lecture she might give her government class - "We all know that the federalist government under Hamilton's tutelage became a government of the elite." - but Coleman said she'll provide a voice voters don't currently have.
"In public education, politicians determine when school will start, the pupil-teacher ratio, the availability of technology, and even the type of textbooks you may adopt for the classroom, and the list could go on - but how many practicing teachers are legislators?''
Newman welcomed her challenge, and said, "This will be the clearest choice yet for the people of Central Virginia. I understand from those who know her that she is a proud Clinton-Wilder-Terry Democrat. In contrast, I am a strong conservative."
Newman is counting on the heavily conservative Lynchburg and Bedford County areas in his bid for the Senate.
Democratic party leaders rallied behind Coleman. Schewel endorsed her candidacy and emphasized that despite her last-minute selection, she is still a strong candidate.
"Of all the people we've looked at, we could not have done better," said Rodney Taylor, a member of the committee that nominated Coleman. "We've got somebody that's going to make Democrats excited again to be part of a campaign."
Republicans took a different view. Robert Garber, chairman of the Lynchburg Republican Party, said Coleman is just a warm body, presenting token opposition to Newman.
"After being turned down by every prominent Democrat - the first string - [the Democrats] resorted to recruiting from the bench. When this was also unsuccessful, then they turned to the bleachers. Finally, they pulled an unknown from the nose-bleed section of the Democrat party rafters," he said.
But Mary Margaret Cash, former chairwoman of the Lynchburg Democratic Party, downplayed any difficulty in finding someone to run. "Does it mean we're disorganized if somebody's wife doesn't want them to run, or somebody doesn't have the--- kind of job that can let them take off two months a year to serve in the General Assembly?''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB