Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
If Tuesday night was any indication, it's love no more.
Before the Virginia Tech Faculty Senate candidates' forum, Linkous, the Republican candidate, said he was "embarrassed" by a "temper tantrum" he watched Shuler throw on the House floor last winter. Linkous said Shuler put the restoration of $12.5 million to Tech's Cooperative Extension Service at risk by insisting on a specific floor vote rather than letting it remain part of an uncontested package.
The normally low-key Shuler reacted angrily to Linkous' suggestion that he was only trying to embarrass Republicans by forcing them to vote against Republican Gov. George Allen, who had proposed the extension cut.
"I was just fighting for funding for [Tech], and if he calls that a temper tantrum, that's his problem," Shuler said. He said he sought the floor vote on Extension to "defend the need to reinstate that money."
A videotape of the incident, which Linkous purchased from the Division of Legislative Services, shows an exchange between Shuler and a Chesterfield Republican, followed by questions and comments from three other delegates, including House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell. The comments centered on why Extension could come up for debate when so many other issues were being kept from the floor.
Finally, a Colonial Heights Republican asked Shuler whether he favored allowing a floor vote on the governor's proposed state income tax cut. Shuler impatiently took off his microphone, tossed it on the desk and sat down without answering, the tape shows. The House then approved the Extension restoration, 96-0.
Campaign-forum onlooker Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said Shuler's performance in the House that day "was definitely a breach of etiquette."
Shuler's campaign manager, Tom Zuckerwar, said Wednesday that Linkous was taking that floor action "extremely out of context." Moreover, he said, Linkous' angry opening statement at the Sept. 19 League of Women Voters Forum in Blacksburg could be considered a tantrum of its own.
"Jim was no more vocal in the assembly than Larry was after that opening statement," Zuckerwar said.
The exchanges livened up what was otherwise a lengthy - and long-winded - repeat of each candidate's support for increased spending for higher education, and contention that he, rather than his opponent, would better represent Tech's interests in the legislature. Shuler, Linkous, state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and his Republican challenger, Pat Cupp, also responded to sharply partisan questions, some specific to Tech and others about the region in general.
Marye, who has built a reputation over the years for his quick wit and fiery speaking style, struggled Tuesday. He was nearly incomprehensible at times as he rambled, lost his train of thought and otherwise fared badly in a performance that he acknowledged later was below par.
"I thought I was talking to the faculty senate," he said afterward, an allusion to the College Republican cheering section that punctuated many of his opponent's answers.
The 69-year-old senator made several factual errors, including in his concluding speech, when he said his "heart is with the 37th Senatorial District." He hasn't represented the 37th since the 1991 redistricting removed Floyd County and Radford and changed the district's number to the 39th.
Marye completely contradicted himself in one instance, when a questioner asked if the candidates would favor any type of faculty layoff plan that favored younger, untenured professors in an attempt to preserve diversity. (Tech officials said Wednesday no such plan is under consideration.)
Marye answered: "I certainly don't think you should consider the dismissal of anyone based on race, color, creed or religion. I don't think that should be a factor at all in the consideration. Downsizing is hard thing to do, a hard thing to accomplish, but [long pause] I guess I'm saying we should consider race, color, creed and religion."
Cupp said he was not just a one-issue candidate, and he criticized what he called Marye's inaccessibility to the residents of his district, which stretches from Montgomery County south to include parts of Pulaski and Carroll counties, and all of Grayson and Smyth counties, along with the city of Galax.
"I am accessible. I work hard, I like my job, I believe in Virginia Tech," Marye responded, after rattling off a long list of projects he said he had brought to Tech and the region. "Although I'm a farmer, a old crusty guy from down in Shawsville, and I may not make the best speaker and have a very glib tongue, but I can tell you that my heart is with Virginia Tech."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB