Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Local lore has it that when Vic Thomas ran for the House of Delegates for the first time in 1973, he knocked on so many doors that he bloodied his knuckles.
Thomas chuckles when he hears that less-than-historical account of his initial bid for office. But in every little white lie, there's a kernel of truth.
Back in those days, he explains, delegates were elected at large, so he had a lot more ground to cover than he does now. And he did knock on a whole lot of doors that year.
"I really and truly knocked on 18,000 homes. Well, me and my family did. No one has ever done anything like that," Thomas said. "I ran so long and so hard. I swear they didn't think I would do it. I was district chairman [of the 6th District Democratic Committee] at the time, and they wanted me to be chair again. They said, 'Let him go on and get it out of his system.' ... I really didn't have a snowball's chance."
Thomas was running against three incumbents. Not only did he win, he led the ticket in number of votes.
So you won't hear Thomas spouting conventional wisdom about the chances of his first Republican opponent in 14 years, Jeff Artis. (Thomas defeated an independent candidate in 1991, garnering more than 80 percent of the vote.) Having booted an incumbent out of office himself, Thomas probably knows better than anyone that nobody owns a seat in the legislature - even after 22 years.
"I'm going to run scared," Thomas says. "I'm going to work hard and not take things for granted. Anyone who knows me knows I don't take nothing for granted."
Especially now.
Like most Democrats this year, Thomas says he's worried about the direction in which Gov. George Allen and Republicans are leading the state. That's why he won't be throwing in the towel this year.
"I had thoughts about when I wanted to get out. But what faced us when we went down there [last session], I did not feel this was the time to get out," Thomas says.
Especially not for him.
In 1982, Thomas became the Roanoke Valley's first and only member of the House Appropriations Committee in nearly half a century. He still is.
That committee arguably is one of the plum assignments in the House of Delegates. From that position, Thomas gets the first peek at the governor's proposed budget, and he oversees state spending, including funds directed to the Roanoke Valley.
It's a committee that commands power and influence, qualities that seem at odds with Thomas' folksy, down-home image.
The Thomases are seen as "the hillbillies on the hill. They joke about it," says Christie Meredith, Thomas' legislative aide. "A lot of people write him off, but then they're sorry for underestimating him."
Like last session - when he pushed through budget amendments that included restoring funds for Meals-On-Wheels and Total Action Against Poverty. He also got $200,000 for the New Century Council to finish its work.
But those are hardly the issues that most people associate with the Orange Avenue grocery store proprietor. The E.J. Thomas Market, named for his late father, has been in his family since 1924.
Guns, parks and sportsmen's concerns are the issues more likely to pop into people's minds when they think of Thomas. It's in those areas that Thomas, who was born and raised in Roanoke, has put up the more memorable fights of his career.
He's probably best known for a battle in the 1980s over the requirement that hunters wear blaze orange during deer hunting season to prevent them from being shot accidentally by other hunters.
For years, Thomas, an avid hunter, probably was the blaze orange legislation's largest stumbling block in the House. He argued that education and training were the best ways to prevent hunting accidents and that requiring that hunters wear blaze orange merely was a Band-Aid for the problem.
The bill seemed destined for repeated failure. Thomas was - and still is - chairman of the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, and from that position, he shot the bill down year after year. It never would have made it out of committee had Thomas not eventually decided to let it reach the floor. He backed off his opposition at the request of a friend who found a man killed in the woods by a 16-year-old hunter.
"When he wants something done, he is an irresistible force, and if he doesn't want something, he's an unmovable force," says Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, who has worked with Thomas for 36 years.
That dogged persistence surfaced again last session over how to divvy up the money from the sale of surplus state land. Years earlier, Thomas had sponsored legislation to get the monies split 50-50 between the general fund and the conservation fund for parks.
But a bill this year proposed changing that formula just when at least $250 million worth of property was being considered for sale by the Governor's Strike Force Commission on the Conversion of State-Owned Property. That formula would have put nearly all of the proceeds from the sale into the general fund.
Thomas led a campaign, which included a rare speech on the floor, that kept parks in the equation and added his other pet issues: mental health and higher education.
"Vic kept his parks in there. He stayed with it night and day, over the forces of the governor, and Vic carried the day. He was just not going to be beat," says Woodrum, who supported the bill's original version.
The legislation, however, that Thomas seems most proud of is a law he sponsored 19 years ago. It was the state's first legislation for a mandatory sentence for people convicted of committing felonies with a firearm. It perhaps was the first testing ground for his determination in the legislature. (He showed the same determination outside politics in the early 1960s when he walked 50 miles in sleet and snow from Lynchburg to Roanoke as part of a fitness challenge from President Kennedy.)
"A lot of people laughed at his persistence" in getting the firearm legislation passed, says Del. Paul Councill Jr., D-Franklin, who was a freshman legislator the same year Thomas was. "He didn't have much success the first time he introduced it. It took a little missionary work to get it through - a little arm-twisting."
Then, as now, Thomas' battles are fought - and often won - in committee meetings and in one-on-one conversations, not on the House floor.
"He's very hesitant to get on the floor unless he feels he absolutely must. He isn't one who likes to listen to his own voice. I wish more people were like him," Councill says. "He's not a Dickie Cranwell or a Chip Woodrum or those people who spend a lot of time on their feet."
In fact, in his 22 years in the House, Thomas has never called a news conference - although he shows up at ones arranged by others - nor has he ever taken a point of personal privilege, which is an opportunity in morning sessions for delegates to wax poetic about current events or other burning issues.
Thomas explains it this way: Actions speak louder than words.
His low public-speaking profile may have another, equally logical explanation: He's bad at it.
"Woodrum and Cranwell are two of his closest friends, and they're the best orators in the state. Vic can't do that, and he doesn't do that," says Meredith, who is helping Thomas manage his campaign.
However, it isn't only when he's in front of large groups that his thoughts appear to get a little jumbled. Even in one-on-one conversations, Thomas frequently peppers his remarks with "but anyway," which is his way of finding his way back to the initial topic that he has strayed from.
It isn't quite stream of consciousness; it's more a hopscotch of consciousness.
Woodrum recalls that when Thomas ran for office the first time, it was for that reason that people thought he could not win. "Everybody said, 'He can't win. He can't talk; he can't speak.' Nobody believed he could win except for a few of us," Woodrum says. "He's got the best nose for politics you've ever seen. He may not appear that way, but that's part of his persona. He has a good mind, and he knows what he's talking about, even if he doesn't always tell you with proper paragraphing and semicolons."
That respect doesn't just flow from his fellow Democrats. It crosses party lines, says Del. Robert Bloxom R-Accomack, who serves on the Appropriations Committee with Thomas.
"When Vic expresses his opinion, particularly when it's on outdoor issues, most people listen," Bloxom says. "Over a period of years of working with someone on a number of different issues, you get to a point where you know sincerity and integrity and honesty. And Vic, I think, is an example of many of those values we look for in people.
"Vic's a Democrat, and I'm a Republican, but I respect Vic."
But Thomas will be the first to admit that the more important question is: Do voters respect him and the job he's doing?
Thomas, who still can be found some days working the cash register at his store, says he tries to be responsive to citizens, and not just those in his district.
"Whenever the phone rings, I'm helping my constituents," Thomas says. And the phone in his office, which is just behind the store's counter, rings often. "I can't always help them, but we always make an effort. They feel good about it if you try to help them, and it makes me feel good when I can."
VIC THOMAS
Party: Democrat
Age: 65
Occupation: Owner of E.J. Thomas Market
Residence: South Roanoke
Family: Married, four children.
WHAT THE CANDIDATE SAYS ABOUT HIS:
CORE VALUES: "I believe very strongly in God, country and family.
"I was brought up in the old-fashioned way. There was eight of us, and I was taught not to waste, and the importance of a work ethic. I believe strongly in work. And what you put in, you get out.
"I feel very strongly that we've got a job to do, and that's first of all to listen to the people and try to help. ... The laws we pass affect all of us."
INDEPENDENCE: "I don't think I've ever been real partisan. I believe in going on the merits" of legislation. "I usually march to my own drummer." To some extent, his voting record confirms that. An analysis by The Roanoke Times and its sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, found that Thomas didn't vote with the party on 14 of 50 key votes that generally broke along party lines. No other House member broke with his party more often.
VISION: Thomas wants to see the state increase education spending to reduce classroom size. He also is concerned about higher-education funding. The state needs "to get our funding for education per student up and get us up to where we rightly belong for higher education."
"Provide for the security and the safety of our citizens," he says. "Keep working to get more for the dollar."
Keywords:
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by CNB