Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9510020010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If there is an unwritten policy on door-to-door campaigning that prohibits a candidate from spending more than two minutes on a voter's threshold, Newell Falkinburg is, happily, a policy violator.
He is a self-described "motor mouth" who never turns down a chance to go one on one with a prospective supporter. If someone pumps him with questions, he lingers, though the "rules" suggest he should not.
Two minutes fall short of his needs. One minute is worse. At a candidates' forum sponsored this month by the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League, he rushed his words under tight time constraints - 60 quick seconds for each response.
But as a political newcomer, Falkinburg has been pressed to establish himself and his views. A Republican, he is attempting to unseat incumbent Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum in a traditionally Democratic district that has been Woodrum territory for 16 years.
Falkinburg insists that his shot at victory rests with general voter dissatisfaction with "politics as usual." A physician who specializes in nephrology, a subspeciality of internal medicine that deals with kidney diseases and high blood pressure, he is viewed as the fresh new face.
"People are going for candidates that somehow stand out, that don't come across as the same ol', same ol'," says Jim Lowe, a Roanoke engineer and lawyer who himself considered a run against Woodrum this year. "Newell has been able to do that. He's very sincere in his convictions and in his beliefs. His medical background makes him different, brings a different perspective to an elected office. I think that's appealing."
Falkinburg, a New Jersey native, graduated from New York's Adelphi University and the California College of Medicine at the University of California at Irvine. He served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era as an instructor in medicine at Kessler Air Force Base Medical Center in Biloxi, Miss.
While Woodrum's Roanoke Valley roots run deep, Falkinburg's are slightly shorter. He was lured to the Roanoke Valley in 1974, recruited to Roanoke Memorial Hospital to develop programs in nephrology and in dialysis. He also helped develop a clinical campus for the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Falkinburg says he was content to raise his family, buy a home and focus on his work as a physician. Politics was an interest, but more as an interest in issues than in running for public office.
The children are grown now. And over the past five years, Falkinburg has become more interested in the campaign process, spurred by his involvement in Republican Bob Goodlatte's successful run for Congress in 1992. Falkinburg served on Goodlatte's campaign finance committee.
"I think he's got a philosophy similar to mine," Goodlatte says. "We both believe in limited government, in free enterprise, less government regulation and more individual responsibility. When he saw some of the success I'd had, I think it inspired him to run."
Falkinburg's interest was honed last spring at the University of Virginia's Institute of Political Leadership, a privately endowed entity that identifies individuals who have political-leadership potential and trains them in basic campaign skills.
For one college semester, two weekends a month, Falkinburg attended the institute. He listened to former state legislators Steve Agee and Granger Macfarlane talk of campaigning and serving and the impact of public life on family life. He helped balance a state budget. He learned that Democrats aren't "evil people."
Falkinburg was so dedicated to his participation that he flew up from a monthlong Florida vacation to attend.
"We really did recognize that much of what the public hears between Republicans and Democrats is rhetoric to help facilitate exercising an agenda," Falkinburg says. "And that both of us are in good faith trying to do in our hearts what we feel is going to do best."
Bill Wood, the institute's executive director, says he was not surprised at Falkinburg's decision to run.
"Back in 1994, I talked to him about joining the class," Wood says. "And I thought after meeting him that 'this fellow has got the bug. He's really interested in running for office.'''
For all of Falkinburg's interest, it is tough to pin him down on specifics. There are plenty of ideas - for economic development, for effective schools with high academic standards, for cooperation among state localities. But beyond that, the ideas stall somewhat.
For instance, Falkinburg supports the state's new welfare system that cuts recipients off after two years and provides one year of transitional benefits. But if recipients working their way off public assistance are trained and ready to work, yet have no jobs to go to, "then they get unemployment," he says. "At least they're not on welfare."
Falkinburg whacked an off-the-script lob into the campaign when, after reading a Roanoke Times article about state inmates who'd been sent to Texas and were working there without pay, he proposed a repeal of a state law that allows inmates to be paid for work they do while incarcerated. The notion of inmates being paid while paying back their debt to society, he said, was outrageous.
Woodrum called Falkinburg's remarks a "pointless broadside on the issues." A state prison inmate even weighed in on the subject.
"Newell Falkinburg's attitude appears to be the same attitude the Governor has - that if one makes a mistake and becomes imprisoned, they no longer should be treated as human beings but something far, far less," inmate Richard E. Hicks wrote in a letter to The Roanoke Times.
Falkinburg challenged Woodrum to a $175,000 campaign spending cap this month, frustrated at the four hours a day he was spending on fund raising. He hadn't realized then that he'd already out-raised his opponent by more than $30,000.
And in raising the cap issue, he unwittingly called more attention to the $50,000 contribution he received from Edward and Peter Via, sons of the late Roanoke philanthropist Marion Via.
No matter, Falkinburg says. It added some spice to the campaign and got his name in the paper a few times. And, he says, it pointed out differences between Woodrum and himself.
"He gets so fired up about this stuff," says Jim Jonas, an Alexandria consultant who is working with Falkinburg's campaign. "It's refreshing. There is no hidden agenda with this guy."
There are, though, critics who see Falkinburg as catering only to the well-to-do because of his profession. But he argues that his appeal is much broader - because of his profession.
"Being a physician gives me a perspective that a lot of people don't have," he says. "That's because I see everybody - very, very rich people; very, very poor people; black people; white people; Asian people - in the most dire straits. So I think I bring a certain sensitivity to this process."
Falkinburg has curtailed his medical practice, dramatically cutting back his daytime outpatient duties but continuing to work on call. And he continues to teach medical students, which requires an occasional lecture.
A year ago, Falkinburg's medical activities had become so burdensome that he was forced to cut some of his community activities. First to go was his participation on the Roanoke Teen Pregnancy Task Force. He'd served on the task force as a representative of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine.
"I had to give up something," he says. "The task force wasn't leaving any burned rubber on the streets, so it seemed to be the most likely target to be dispensed."
Ted Feinour, an investment banker who headed the task force, says Falkinburg was an "interested and active participant who was very much a part of the discussions" before he withdrew from the group.
But Falkinburg says he saw himself as a fairly "dispensable" task force member whose absence neither helped nor hindered the group.
"I still consider teen pregnancy a major social problem that needs to be looked at," he says. "But you can't address teen pregnancy without addressing welfare issues, economic development issues, education issues. And you can get yourself embroiled in such a tangle of related issues that it's very difficult to get things done."
Wood, of UVa's Institute for Political Leadership, remembers Falkinburg for his "self-deprecating" sense of humor and strong opinions.
"Newell would've been among the top three or four in the class to espouse his philosophical views," Wood says. "He would never get defensive. When people would challenge his views, he never took it personally.
"There are a lot of doctors who think the state of politics is lousy, but not many are willing to go out and get involved. I admire Newell for that."
NEWELL FALKINBURG
Party: Republican
Age: 55
Occupation: Physician. Specializes in nephrology, a subspecialty of internal medicine that deals with kidney diseases and high blood pressure.
Residence: Southwest Roanoke
Family: Married, two children.
WHAT THE CANDIDATE HAS TO SAY ABOUT HIS:
CORE VALUES: "Absolute personal freedoms of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Honesty, integrity, interests of constituents first - above partisan concerns and the narrow concerns of interest groups."
INDEPENDENCE: "My job is to represent Roanoke, and I will vote in the best interest thereof. I march lock step with no one, as I have no political agenda other than seeing to it that the people of the 16th District get the best representation possible. Already, during the campaign, I have been in favor of stopping the payment of incarcerated prisoners, which differed from the position of the Republican leadership."
VISION: "We must get the state's fiscal house in order [and] see to it that we educate our youth and provide for the best equipped, best prepared work force in America. We must encourage the localities to work together to act in a coordinated fashion in attracting business, so our youth will not have to move out of the area to find work."
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB