Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 21, 1995                   TAG: 9506210120
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY AND SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BELL AIMS INVECTIVE AT EDWARDS' SUPPORT BY `GREEDY' LAWYERS

Borrowing a theme from the bard Tuesday, the Republican incumbent launched an attack on his Democratic opponent, Roanoke Vice Mayor John Edwards, who is a trial lawyer.

Edwards, former U.S. attorney, sent out a letter May 31 seeking individual campaign contributions from members of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.

Addressed "Dear Fellow Trial Lawyer," it notes that he is "proud that my campaign is supported by" the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Political Action Committee.

Bell spoke outside his Franklin Road business, Parcel Express. Beside him was a large mock-up of the Edwards letter that had key phrases highlighted in pink.

Bell called trial lawyers "greedy" and said they'd fought "tooth and nail against common-sense legal reform" while "court costs have skyrocketed and frivolous lawsuits [have] run amok."

"My father told me you can tell a lot by the friends you keep, and you can tell a lot about a politician by the friends he keeps," Bell said.

"After four years fighting for change and working for reform in the state Senate, and as owner of a small business, I can tell you the last thing Virginia families and businesses need is another trial lawyer in Richmond writing their intrusive laws and regulations," Bell said.

In response, Edwards noted that without trial lawyers, schools might still be segregated, blacks might still lack voting rights, air and water might be dirtier, and cars might not be as safe.

Trial lawyers "represent the people and fight for the rights of ordinary citizens in court every day," Edwards said.

"It's the height of hypocrisy for Senator Bell to criticize my support from the trial lawyers in view of his rigid support of the narrow and divisive ideology coming from the Governor's Mansion in Richmond," Edwards said.

Piping up

on the pipeline

Republican House of Delegates candidate Newell Falkinburg spoke out against the proposed Lake Gaston pipeline agreement last week, saying the deal was detrimental to the Roanoke Valley's future.

A day later, Falkinburg's Democratic opponent, Roanoke Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, jumped into the Lake Gaston issue, saying he, too, opposed the agreement and suggested it may be unconstitutional.

Under the agreement, water-deprived Virginia Beach and other Tidewater communities would be allowed to pump up to 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston along the Virginia-North Carolina border.

Negotiators have come together over the past two days to attempt to hammer out compromises in the proposed agreement, which has a June 27 deadline for General Assembly action.

Falkinburg said the agreement, as written last week, jeopardizes local governments' ability to control economic development.

"This is an agreement between Virginia Beach and North Carolina. The state of Virginia was not involved," Falkinburg said. "The agreement pre-emptively obligates water from the Roanoke River basin.

"Suppose in 20, 30 or 40 years there was a plan to construct an industrial park in Botetourt County. ... North Carolina communities would be in a position to veto such a project," he said. "Economic development in Western Virginia could be stymied by North Carolina localities, because they have a right to object to water uses within the basin."

Falkinburg, who was joined by Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, at a news conference last Wednesday, said he would support the creation of a regulatory body that would include representatives from all affected areas, including the Roanoke Valley.

The group would be responsible for mediating future conflicts, he said.

"Please understand that I recognize and am sensitive to the concerns of eastern Virginia. I am not against a Lake Gaston pipeline," Falkinburg said. "But I am against this agreement that obviously affects our long-term interests. ... We cannot give away control of our economic destiny."

Woodrum argued that the Virginia Constitution calls for the governor to conduct negotiations with other states. The proposed Lake Gaston pipeline agreement was the result of closed-door negotiations between Virginia Beach and North Carolina officials.

"The very fact that it was negotiated in secret without any input from the people who are directly affected ... flies in the face of the very basis of representative government," Woodrum said in a letter to the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, which also opposes the compact.

Keywords:
POLITICS