Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Marye, the 22-year Democratic incumbent from Shawsville, and GOP challenger Cupp of Blacksburg squared off in an hourlong, sparsely attended encounter at Virginia Tech. Public radio station WVTF-FM sponsored and broadcast the debate.
Their rhetoric bordered at times on the edge of a "did-too, did-not" argument between playground rivals.
The verbal jousting referenced - sometimes obscurely - earlier candidates' forum exchanges, old press clippings, whether Jack Ruby had a concealed-weapon permit when he shot presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 and even exactly when former Gov. Gerald Baliles publicly criticized Virginia Tech for allowing athletics to run amok.
"Will you concede the fact that Governor Baliles spoke to Tech at graduation, not homecoming? You corrected me last week, and I let you slide," Cupp asked Marye.
"I will tell you this, it was written up in the paper, you never quote the full statement in the paper," Marye shot back. "I've told you, and told you, and told you what I said, and I'm not going to tell you again."
"I don't want to be corrected if you corrected me wrong," Cupp fired again.
Finally, the moderator interrupted, suggesting, to chuckles from the crowd, their dispute might be one that "works best in a different kind of setting."
"A barroom brawl," one onlooker muttered.
(For the record, Baliles spoke at Tech's June 1987 graduation, and Marye was quoted afterward as saying the then-governor could have chosen a "more appropriate place." Cupp was right, but the spat over when Baliles spoke overshadowed Cupp's point in bringing it up: that Marye allegedly didn't stand up for the university.)
Marye and Cupp are running for the 39th District seat, which extends from Montgomery County south to Grayson County and includes Smyth County, Galax and parts of Carroll and Pulaski counties.
In between their verbal feuding, the candidates did manage to stake out a few contrasting stands on issues:
On a possible law to require the notification of parents when a teen-age girl seeks an abortion, Cupp said parents have a right to know and should be notified by law. Marye said he favors the status quo, which doesn't mandate notification.
On changing welfare, Cupp said further efforts need to focus on getting welfare-receiving parents to complete their education. Marye said he supported the reform passed this year but would like to see child care and transportation provided for parents going back to school.
On charter schools, Cupp said he couldn't take a stand without studying the issue more, though he said public schools must have a problem if some students emerge without the ability to read or write. Marye said the proposal for publicly funded, quasi-private schools should be studied, but he opposes them for now.
Cupp went on the attack early and Marye shot right back. Marye's campaign manager, Ann Hess, seemed to have the fighting spirit, too. Just before the debate started, she confronted Cupp campaign workers who were attempting to videotape it.
With no ground rules preventing taping, the camera stayed. "It was probably an overreaction on my part," said Hess, a former Montgomery County supervisor.
Cupp attacked Marye as being a fair-weather education supporter who is "issue bankrupt." He said Marye did nothing to stand up for Tech during the budget cutbacks of the early 1990s under former Gov. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat.
Marye said the Wilder cuts were made during a recession and were necessary. The problem now, he said, is that the economy and tax base are growing, but Allen still wants to cut higher education.
Tuesday's debate came one week after Marye struggled at a candidates' forum before the Virginia Tech Faculty Senate.
He appeared to be in better spirits this week and showed his trademark wit several times, including when a call-in questioner asked if either candidate had been arrested for drunken driving.
"I've never been incarcerated for anything," Marye said. "When I was a young soldier they took me out and showed me the stockade at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and I decided right then that I would devote my life to staying out."
To listen to an excerpt from the debate, call Infoline at 382-0200 in the New River Valley or 981-0200 in the Roanoke Valley, and punch in category 8683 ("VOTE").
Keywords:
POLITICS INFOLINE
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.