Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
State Sen. Brandon Bell certainly hasn't shied away from the word "liberal" in describing his Democratic opponent, Roanoke Vice Mayor John Edwards.
But with a new radio spot, the Roanoke County Republican's campaign has hit upon a far more potent and emotionally-charged "L-word."
Bell accuses Edwards of "lying" about his record, a charge Edwards calls "untrue," "absolutely unbelievable" and "outrageous."
Titled "Valley," the 60-second Bell ad began running on Roanoke Valley radio stations last week. It amounts to an escalation of an already negative radio ad battle waged by both campaigns - one that's left some Republicans and Democrats shaking their heads in dismay.
"There was a time when to call someone a liar would have been almost fighting words. And it certainly has not been commonly used in political ads," says Bob Denton, a political communications specialist who heads Virginia Tech's Communications Department. "... How long will it be before someone calls someone else an SOB? Where will it stop?"
The Bell spot doesn't address any of Edwards' so-called lies. But when asked about it, Bell ticks off a list of seven untruths he says Edwards has uttered repeatedly during the campaign. Most of them deal with his record on education issues, Bell says.
"People might have an aversion to the word, you can say misrepresentation, misstatement, whatever," Bell says. "But when you repeatedly point out that something's not correct, I don't know what other word you can use to describe it. He's lying about my record. He's lying about these specifics in regards to this campaign."
Edwards heatedly denies the charge. "It's just a broad brush sling of mud; that's what it is," he says. "He's not dealing with the issues in the campaign. I think people want a positive campaign, talking about the issues. That's what I've been trying to do."
Bell's biggest gripe is Edwards' repeated line on charter schools, which are parent- and teacher-led institutions that would be financed with taxpayer money but free from many state and local school board regulations.
At virtually every campaign appearance in the district that covers Roanoke and most of Roanoke County, Edwards has charged that charter schools are private schools - and that Bell's legislation would take state funding from public school systems and give it to private schools.
Bell's reply is almost always the same: "Charter schools are not private schools. They are public schools."
The senator notes that his bill - which failed this year and was opposed by both the city and county school boards - specifically designates charter schools as public, non-religious and open to all students.
The bill prohibits existing private schools from applying for funds as charter schools. Under it, charter schools would be established by contract with a local school board and would receive the same amount of public funding per student that public schools get.
Edwards argues that money would be deducted from regular school system budgets, which have huge overhead expenses. It will end up hurting students who stay in traditional public schools, he says.
"It's privatization of charter schools; that's what it is," Edwards says. "How can he say it's not a private school? It's a private entity. A private group gets together and sets up a school that is only governed by a contract, not by any other oversight. That's the whole crux of it."
When it comes to putting a "spin" on education issues, Bell himself is no saint.
The "Valley" ad takes another slam at Edwards, implying he is to blame because literacy test scores in Roanoke city schools "have gone nowhere but down since Edwards has been vice mayor."
Edwards has been vice mayor for one year and three months. It's true the percentage of sixth-graders passing all three parts of the state literacy test dropped in the city during that time period. But the percentage also dropped statewide last year, while Bell served in the Senate.
Vella Wright, director of research, testing and evaluation for Roanoke city schools, said the decline marked the first time since 1991 that the overall scores dropped in either the city or the state.
"I wouldn't say that's a trend," Wright said. "It could be a spike, a negative one." She also suggested it could be due to a change in the way grading was done for the writing part of the test.
However, it's the lying charge and the general tenor of the Bell and Edwards' campaigns - rather than typical political tit for tat - that has raised some eyebrows among Democrats and Republicans.
"I've been in politics for a long time," says Roanoke Sheriff Alvin Hudson, one of the valley's longest-serving Democrats. "I've never seen stooping to the bottom of the barrel like I've seen in the last week or so. Calling people liars?"
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, says Bell isn't the only one in the contest hitting below the belt. An Edwards' radio spot - its' no longer on the air - satirized Bell as a do-nothing, country-bumpkin lawmaker more interested in fishing and partying with lobbyists than in lawmaking, Griffith notes.
Lying "is a pretty strong word, but I thought the Edwards piece ... was close to the edge," Griffith says. "I'm not sure Brandon wasn't forced to take strong action after that ad. It may be regrettable, but that's where we're at."
He suggests the harshness of the attacks says more about the current political landscape than it does about the two candidates.
"The trend towards nastier campaigns is typical in periods in this country when power is being shifted from one political group to another political group," Griffith says. "All of us, to a certain degree, are in the grips of a political upheaval, a changing of the guard in the commonwealth."
Text of Brandon Bell's ad
"You know, the people of the Roanoke Valley have a pretty good sense of things. They know that when a politician starts lying about his opponent, he's trying to hide something. Take John Edwards. He's desperate to get up the political ladder - having run for three different offices in the last four years. That's why he's running these cheap-shot, untrue advertising digs against Brandon Bell.
"You see, Edwards doesn't want the campaign focused on his out-of-touch liberal record. Like his not wanting a parent to know of a young daughter seeking an abortion.
"Or, writing his fellow trial lawyers across Virginia asking for money and telling them we need even more trial lawyers in the Virginia Senate.
"And, by the way, the next time Edwards starts talking about education, ask him why student literacy test scores in the Roanoke Valley have gone nowhere but down since Edwards has been vice mayor. He won't talk about that either.
"No, for us - it's Brandon Bell: fighting for our conservative values, putting the Roanoke Valley first."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB