Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With the document in his hands, state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, took the stage at the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League debate last week, ready to debunk the notion that Roanoke City Council and the School Board oppose one of his pet projects, charter school legislation.
As proof, Bell read the words right off the joint City Council/School Board legislative program, adopted Nov. 28, 1994. His Senate campaign opponent, Vice Mayor John Edwards, was co-chairman of the committee that had reviewed and approved it.
``The charter school concept offers unique opportunities for local schools,'' Bell read from the program. ``We support legislation that allows local schools to establish charter schools.''
``It's right here,'' Bell continued, holding up the page for the crowd of 100 people to see. ``It's documented. Anybody that wants to see it, it goes to the credibility of my opponent on this issue.''
Bell offered the statement as evidence that Edwards, who opposes charter schools, voted in favor of them.
But what Bell didn't read the audience was the next sentence: ``The establishment of charter schools outside the jurisdiction of the local school board is opposed.''
And he failed to tell the crowd that council, led by Edwards, subsequently deleted the original wording and passed a resolution condemning charter schools, albeit belatedly.
Bell later said he wanted to tell the whole story, but a one-minute limit on his speaking time for that issue prevented it. (But he didn't use time allotted later in the forum to set the record straight, either.)
The point he was trying to make was Edwards' failure to catch the language in the document's draft and his later about-face on the issue, the senator said.
But some Democrats later said they saw the maneuver as vintage Bell: the use of a prop to hit his opponent squarely - and to tell only half the story at the same time.
Whatever your political leanings, it's hard to deny that John Brandon Bell is a go-getter.
``His greatest strengths are his organizational ability, his fund-raising talent, and his very cogent understanding of grass-roots-level politics,'' said Gilbert Butler, a Republican ally and Roanoke developer.
Charlottesville-born but raised in Mississippi, Bell arrived in Roanoke in 1982 with a business degree from Mississippi State University and a sales job with computer giant Hewlett-Packard.
Within the next eight years, he became a sales manager for the computer maker, chairman of the Roanoke County Republican Party, and president of the Roanoke Jaycees. The organization's ranks swelled under his leadership.
In 1990, Bell led a petition drive to get a referendum calling for consolidation of the city and county. The referendum won a spot on the ballot that fall, although merger failed in the county by a wide margin.
Nevertheless, Bell parlayed the prominence he achieved during the merger drive into an upstart 1991 campaign against Democratic Sen. Granger Macfarlane, an eight-year Senate veteran with deep roots in the valley's Democratic-dominated political scene.
``It didn't look like anyone was going to run,'' Bell recalled. ``This was something I'd always wanted to do. I felt Granger was more vulnerable than any of the pundits thought.''
Observers gave the political neophyte - whose only election experience was winning the presidency of his college fraternity - virtually no chance.
But Bell took his strategy for selling computers - ``You've got to ask a lot of people before you get the order'' - and applied it to politics.
He went on a relentless door-knocking effort throughout the district, something he's doing again this year.
And Bell waged a scrappy public campaign with stunts - like assembling all the different items Macfarlane had voted to increase taxes on, then calling a news conference - that put his opponent constantly on the defensive.
``I'm much more comfortable being on the offense,'' Bell said.
Bell styled himself as ``pro-family'' and conservative. By contrast, he portrayed Macfarlane as a liberal ``yes man'' for the increasingly unpopular then-Gov. Douglas Wilder.
In an election that saw a low Democratic turnout, Bell's strategy worked. When the votes were tallied, he trounced Macfarlane by 2,428 votes, 54 percent to 46 percent.
Bell's penchant for hard work may be less evident judging from his first four years in Richmond - although freshmen legislators often spend at least one term learning the lawmaking ropes.
Since 1992, he has been chief sponsor of only 15 bills. Of those, four passed. (Bell calls those statistics deceptive, arguing there's more to law-making than putting your name on bills. ``What's important is how you vote,'' he said.)
One of the laws he got through dealt with the city's Architectural Review Board, another with contractors' licensing in joint ventures.
A third changed the city's charter to permit elected schools boards - although proponents haven't mustered enough interest in that to put it to referendum.
The fourth and most recent has perhaps the biggest impact for Roanoke. It essentially doubles the number of Urban Enterprise Zones in the state, which gives businesses tax breaks for setting up shop in economically depressed areas. As a result, City Council is considering adding a 1,600-acre enterprise zone in the U.S. 460 corridor.
Bell is perhaps better known, however, for his legislation that has failed: charter schools.
The measure, backed by Gov. George Allen, would allow school districts to contract with private groups to operate ``charter schools'' - publicly funded schools that would be operated independently of the rest of the school system.
Twice it's been defeated. More significantly, the issue has turned Bell into a pariah to Democrats and the state teachers' association. It's caused more fracas in the current campaign than any other single issue.
Other portions of Bell's legislative record may also raise questions among voters: Bell has cast himself as a supporter of gun rights; yet he voted both against and later for a controversial "one-gun-a-month" bill pushed by then Gov. Douglas Wilder in 1993. The second vote didn't go unnoticed by gun rights supporters.
Bell said he changed his vote because Wilder's original bill had been significantly watered down by the time it came up for a second vote. Ultimately, 16 of 18 Republican senators voted for the final bill.
However, Tom Evans, a pro-gun lobbyist in Richmond, says he doesn't recall significant differences between the original measure and the amended version that later passed.
Bell characterizes himself as ``pro-choice'' on abortion but said he favors legislation requiring parental notification for girls under 18.
Yet in 1992, he voted in committee against a bill requiring doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on teen-age girls. Later on the floor, he voted in favor of parental notification.
``I knew there were other bills that were coming before our committee that I felt would better address the issue. My vote against that initial measure had nothing to do with [parental] notification,'' but rather with other language in the bill, Bell said.
Meanwhile, abortion-rights lobbyists in Richmond have pegged him as a member of the anti-abortion camp. And traditional anti-abortion organizations on the Christian right have rated Bell highly on their legislative score cards - although he did vote against their positions on other abortion issues. For instance, Bell voted to prevent abortion opponents from blocking access to clinics.
Sam Garrison, a Roanoke lawyer, gay-rights supporter and Democratic activist who's supporting Edwards, said that vote shows that Bell isn't necessarily as ideologically driven as many of his GOP colleagues.
``He is fairly open-minded,'' Garrison said. ``He does not, to me, represent the kind of knee-jerk, unthinking conservatism that some in his party do.''
This year, Allen tried to cut funding for Roanoke Valley cultural agencies, such as Center in the Square, the Virginia Museum of Transportation and others. Bell responded with a proposal of his own: cut state funding to museums in Martinsville and Staunton and give the money back to the Roanoke attractions.
Bell said he simply was protecting his home turf. The other museums, which are 100 percent state-funded, ought to raise some of their funding, just as the Roanoke Valley attractions do, he said.
Other lawmakers - Democrats mostly - complained that he'd broken an unwritten rule by trying to slash someone else's projects to finance his own. Western Virginia lawmakers have always stuck together when it comes to state money for their districts. The breach, critics said, might come back to haunt Bell - and Roanoke.
Four years after his first election, Bell is on the campaign trail again. He's still knocking on doors, but there are differences between this year and 1991.
His campaign is flush with more than $110,000 cash from other Republicans, political action committees, corporations and physicians.
As in 1991, labels such as ``yes man'' and ``100 percenter'' for the governor are being tossed around in the campaign. But this time they're directed against Bell, who has largely allied himself with Allen.
Once again, Bell has used props and news conferences to launch rhetorical attacks on his opponent. But this year the stunts sometimes have backfired.
In June, Bell criticized Edwards for soliciting campaign contributions from the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. It later came out that Bell himself accepted a $500 contribution from the trial lawyers in 1991. And he didn't return it until the day he launched the attack on Edwards - 31/2 years later.
Bell later said he was unaware of exactly what the association stood for when he accepted the donation.
In August, he called a news conference and blasted Edwards as a ``liberal'' who would have opposed the tough criminal justice reforms Bell has supported, such as abolishing parole.
It was a strange charge, considering Edwards' stint as U.S. attorney for Western Virginia, prosecuting drug dealers, bank robbers and members of organized crime.
Edwards' response, essentially: Phooey. I've put people behind bars, and you haven't.
BRANDON BELL
Party: Republican
Age: 36
Occupation: Vice president of New Options Group, an outplacement career counseling service. Owner, Parcel Express in Roanoke, a small business that offers mailing services. Served in the Virginia Senate since 1992.
Residence: Cave Spring, Roanoke County.
Family: Married; no children.
WHAT THE CANDIDATE SAYS ABOUT HIS:
CORE VALUES: ``My core values were instilled by my parents. Mom and Dad taught timeless values: the importance of a strong faith in God, of honesty and integrity, the need to help my neighbors and the community, a love for our country, and a need to maintain a strong family. These core values have shaped my conservative political philosophy.''
INDEPENDENCE: ``From the day I was elected, I've realized my first responsibility is to stand up for the families here in the Roanoke Valley. Representing the people of the Roanoke Valley and our conservative values is more important than party labels or partisan politics.''
VISION: ``My vision for the Roanoke Valley is to make it an even better place to live, work and raise our children: a bustling downtown with high-tech, high-paying jobs; citizens that no longer depend on government assistance to eat; and a quality education system striving toward high standards with more control for parents. And I envision streets free from crime, where all folks can feel secure knowing that when their loved ones leave home, they are safe.''
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB