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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995                   TAG: 9508220077
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CANDIDATES AGREE, BUT IT'S 'OTHER SIDE' THAT'S TOO PARTISAN

Cranwell is the House majority leader; by definition, the leader of the majority party is a partisan position. This past session, he was the Democrats' leader in killing much of Republican Gov. George Allen's legislative agenda.

Averill, by contrast, is one of the region's most recognizable Republican activists and served as the western coordinator for Allen's campaign in 1993.

Here's what they had to say about partisanship:

What do you say to voters who think there's too much partisanship in state government?

Richard Cranwell (D): "I agree with them. I've been lamenting for the past seven to eight years that the legislative process has gotten too partisan. It all started when the Republican Party hired Steve Haner [as staffer for the GOP caucus in the General Assembly]. His sole purpose was to elect Republicans. Democrats, out of self-defense, had to hire a caucus director.

"Clinton Miller, Pete Giesen, Andy Guest [longtime Republican legislators] and I worked together for years. I work with Panny Rhodes and John Watkins. But in the last three to four years, especially since the election of George Allen, it's gotten completely out of hand. I think a certain group of people is more interested in political power than solving the state's problems.

"The governor vetoed the bill I had passed on disparity [in school funding between rural and suburban school districts in 1994]. We put in an identical bill this year, but we decided I wouldn't be the patron, because the collective thinking was if I was the chief patron, it didn't have much of a chance of getting signed. [The bill eventually was passed and signed this year.]

"My hope is what's going on in national and state politics, the mean-spirited divisive rhetoric, will somehow run its course with voters and they'll reject that stuff and we'll get back to a more sane political process."

What about Republican charges that Democrats purposely killed most of Gov. George Allen's agenda?

Cranwell: "All I did was what I think is right in opposing Gov. Allen's plan to take 250 law enforcement officers off the street, cut $52 million from public education, cut $40 million from higher education and take 32,000 meals from the mouths of senior citizens. I thought it went too far. But I got hate mail for the first time in my political career; people said nasty things when they saw me. It's gotten to the point where we can't disagree without being less than an honorable person."

What do you say to voters who think there's too much partisanship in state government?

Trixie Averill (R): "Shoot, yeah. If you want partisanship, you have only to look at the Democrats this past year and how they worked to defeat anything put forward by Republicans. Yes, I think there was a lot of partisanship, but it was on the part of the Democrats, especially you know who [Cranwell]. It's very difficult for the Republicans to be partisan, when we haven't had a majority.

"Quite frankly, I don't think the Republicans are going to be as vindictive as the Democrats have been [if the GOP ever holds the majority]. If legislation is good, we're going to put it through, regardless of who had a hand in it. We're not going to throw it away, just because someone on the other side had their hand in it.

"It's not the whole Democratic Party [which has been overly partisan]; it's been the Democratic leadership. How do you spell partisanship? It's D-I-C-K-I-E and H-U-N-T-E-R and D-E-B-O-E-R [Cranwell and Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews of Hampton and Petersburg Del. Jay DeBoer]."

What about Democratic charges that Republicans are to blame for seeking confrontation with the General Assembly so they can have talking points to make on the campaign trail this fall?

Averill: "I don't believe it. He [Cranwell] comes out with stuff and he may actually believe it, but I don't think he sees that he is part of the problem, not part of the solution. He's the majority leader, he's the one who has the power to let bills pass or get killed. When you talk about partisanship, he is the epitome of partisanship. We could have had a much less rancorous session if he'd been willing to work with the governor ... I'm willing to work with the nice Democrats; I expect the nasty ones will be gone."

Keywords:
POLITICS