Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509230002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Long
Del. Allen Dudley is a card player extraordinaire, his friends say.
And in the slice-and-dice world of General Assembly politics, knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em can be the difference between success and failure.
Franklin County GOP Chairman Carthan Currin says Dudley has "one hell of a poker face."
Dudley's cool demeanor certainly impresses Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, whose General Assembly office in Richmond is just a couple of doors down from Dudley's.
"He thinks everything through," Griffith said. "But what do you expect? He's a banker."
Griffith says he rushed excitedly into Dudley's office one day during this year's legislative session. There was a project that Griffith was on the verge of endorsing, and he stopped by to push its merits to Dudley.
Griffith says that Dudley listened and then calmly replied: "Morgan, we just don't have enough money to do every good project in the world."
Griffith, who's running unopposed for re-election this year, chuckles when he recalls Dudley's words. "That still sticks out in my mind, because he's right."
There was another incident involving Dudley during this year's session that left a bigger impression on Griffith.
Up for a vote on the House floor was legislation sponsored by Dudley that would revoke an obscure law requiring motorists on two-lane roads to honk while passing another vehicle.
The bill - not considered partisan or even politically important - had made its rounds through the committee and subcommittee process without a dissenting vote.
Enter Democrat Richard Cranwell, the House Majority Leader.
Cranwell, arguing that dropping the horn law would make driving two-lane roads in his district more dangerous, led a successful party-line fight on the house floor that killed the bill.
"It was nothing more than political gamesmanship," Griffith says. "But Allen handled it remarkably well. He could have gotten all upset about it. But he handled it with humor."
The laughs came a few days after the bill was spiked. Dudley handed out lapel stickers that read "Honk if you pass Dick Cranwell," and he carried around an antique car horn that he squeezed every time he encountered Cranwell in the halls.
"I guess it can be my version of Madison Marye's bottle bill," Dudley says.
And while that may be an example of cards being folded, Dudley has held onto his hand and won the pot a few times, too.
Earlier this year, Fleetwood Homes - a manufactured-housing producer in Rocky Mount - was considering an expansion into a another state.
Local officials scrambled behind the scenes to try to get the company to stay in Franklin County.
Dudley played an ace: he secured a $250,000 grant to Fleetwood from the a special governor's fund for economic development.
The company has since announced plans to locate its expansion in the Franklin County-Rocky Mount Industrial Park.
Fleetwood's general manager, Gary Clark, said the grant sealed the deal.
And while Dudley worked with state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, to get the state money, Franklin County officials said Dudley's Republican tie to Gov. George Allen was the key.
Democrats have criticized those ties. They say Dudley was lucky enough to upset Democrat Wes Naff in 1993 because he had Allen's victorious coattails to grab.
And they say he has become a George Allen puppet in Richmond.
Dudley agrees that he and Allen have much in common philosophically, but he points out that he's voted against several of the governor's initiatives.
An analysis of this year's General Assembly session by The Roanoke Times, and its sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, broke down 50 closely contested votes in the House of Delegates that split along party lines.
Dudley voted four times against the Republican majority.
Of 47 Republican delegates, 29 voted against their party less than Dudley.
"If that's all the Democrats have to say, then that's fine with me," he says. "I'll take George Allen. And they can have Dick Cranwell and [Senate Majority Leader] Hunter Andrews and [Speaker of the House] Tom Moss."
With six weeks left until Election Day, Dudley has waged an incumbent's campaign.
He's raised close to $18,000 in contributions. Two years ago, he had to take out a $20,000 loan - one that he's still paying on - to finance the meat of his campaign.
Dudley hasn't initiated a public attack on his opponent, Democrat Claude Whitehead of Pittsylvania County, preferring to campaign on his platform and the formidable team he says that he and Goode, a high school classmate, have formed in the legislature.
Dudley is a member of the governor's Champion Schools Commission, and he supports the most controversial aspect of the committee's plan: charter schools.
As Dudley sees it, anyone should be given the opportunity to start his or her own school, but final approval and regulation would be handed down by local school boards.
He believes students and educators should be judged on higher accountability standards and that "throwing money at educational problems isn't always the answer."
And Dudley isn't oblivious to what really goes on in a public school. He taught seventh grade at Truevine Elementary School from 1970 to '73. The first year he taught there was the first year the school was integrated.
"He was a good teacher and he was very well-liked," says Rexford Hopkins, the principal of the school, now retired. "The bank kind of came along and stole him from us."
Currin says he'd give the former school teacher an A+ as a freshman legislator.
Dudley recently received a 100 percent rating by the National Federation of Independent Business - an organization that focuses on votes important to business owners over the past two legislative sessions.
Dudley is ranked in the top 15 percent of delegates by Virginia Free, a nonpartisan group that promotes business and industry in Virginia.
And he's produced successful legislation.
Dudley was the chief patron of a bill passed this year that requires that state prison inmates pay part of their medical bills.
The state recently reported that prisoners' trips to the doctor are way down since the bill became law.
Dudley's knowledge of the banking industry - he's the only banker in the General Assembly - has allowed him to carve a niche as the go-to guy on financial bills.
Del. Lacey Putney of Bedford, the only independent in the General Assembly, has served in the House of Delegates longer than any active legislator.
In an interview earlier this year, he said he's seen delegates come and go, and Dudley's no lightweight. Putney said he's been impressed with Dudley's approach: not calling attention to himself, studying every bill and the legislative process meticulously, and picking his battles carefully.
Dudley's son, A.J., who left his job with a financial firm in New York City to help with the campaign, remembers something his dad pounded into his head while he was growing up.
The saying, A.J. recalls, was this:
"You can't wake up one morning and decide you want to be a brain surgeon."
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB