
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995                   TAG: 9510120021
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FREE RIDERS TO RICHMOND

GENERAL Assembly elections this year are Virginia's most competitive in memory. Even so - unfortunately - fully a third of the 140 state House and Senate seats are uncontested. For several more, only one major-party candidate is in the race.

Contributing to that electoral arithmetic are five unopposed candidates in the Roanoke-New River region. Three are Republicans: state Sen. Bo Trumbo of Fincastle, and Dels. Morgan Griffith of Salem and Tommy Baker of Dublin. One, state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount, is a Democrat; the fifth, Del. Lacey Putney of Bedford, is the assembly's only independent.

The partisan breakdown in this region reflects the situation statewide: Republicans are considerably likelier than Democrats to be unopposed. Unlike this region, however, the GOP advantage is especially pronounced in Senate races, where Democrats are challenging only six of 18 Republican-held seats. Goode, by contrast, holds one of only five Democratic seats not being contested by the GOP.

That's one reason for thinking chances of a Republican takeover are higher in the Senate than in the House. (Another is that the Senate, where Democrats have a 22-18 majority, was last elected four years ago. In the House, Democratic control - currently 52-47, with one independent - withstood a GOP challenge just two years ago, even while George Allen at the top of the Republican ticket was winning the governorship by a wide margin.)

Also reflecting the statewide situation is the fact that the unopposed candidates in this region are incumbents. In all Senate and House districts where the incumbent is not running for re-election, both the major parties have candidates - but there are only two such Senate seats, both held by the Democrats, and only a half-dozen such House seats, evenly split between the parties.

On general principles, General Assembly seats should be contested, even where a challenger's chances of victory are slight. Losing candidacies are not necessarily pointless candidacies: They can help hold office-holders accountable, and help keep alternative ideas afloat. On this score, even if sometimes for merely tactical reasons, the GOP is doing better than the Democrats.

Messrs. Trumbo, Griffith, Baker, Goode and Putney can't be blamed for the absence of opposition to their re-elections. Responsibility for coming up with challengers certainly isn't theirs.

Indeed, the lack of opposition is to some extent a tribute to the quality of their performance in office. All have deep roots in the districts they represent; all seem to maintain close contact with their constituents; all defy easy ideological categorization. Should the Republicans take over one or both houses, Trumbo in particular appears in a good position to serve as a brake on some of his party's wilder enthusiasms.

In performing well enough in office to dissuade challengers, the region's uncontested incumbents have done their constituents a service. Too bad the Democrats (in the cases of Trumbo, Griffith and Baker), the Republicans (in the case of Goode) and both (in the case of independent Putney) failed to provide the services of an opposition party.

by CNB