Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510300073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STAUNTON LENGTH: Long
Del. Vance Wilkins Jr. is working the chamber of commerce reception like a hungry man on the buffet line.
He isn't the prettiest of politicians. His teeth are crooked. His country-boy ears poke out from his head. And his greased-back hair is parted every which way to cover the bald spot in back.
But he is one of the most determined. Moving from group to group, he extends a sinewy right hand and looks the business types square in the eye. "How ya doin'? I'm Vance Wilkins."
The Amherst County Republican is campaigning close to home this fall - for a change. For the past six years, Wilkins crisscrossed Virginia to help inch the Republican Party toward a majority in the House of Delegates and to bring him closer to fulfilling his ambition of becoming the first Republican speaker in this century. This year, however, Wilkins is concentrating on the more immediate task of saving his own hide.
The 18-year incumbent finds himself trying to master new district boundaries rigged against him, reassure a bevy of state workers who live in his district and overcome a surprisingly able Democratic challenger.
"If the Democrats' objective is to tie me down, they've done that. If their objective is to win, I doubt that," Wilkins said, managing to sound humble and boastful in the same mouthful.
Democrats would love nothing more than to mug Wilkins, an archconservative whose dogged candidate recruitment has helped erode their House majority to a threadbare three seats.
The House Democratic Caucus and individual Democratic lawmakers poured more than $30,000 in cash and polling services to Wilkins' opponent through Sept. 30. House Speaker Thomas Moss Jr. of Norfolk - the Democrat with the most to lose if Republicans take control - kicked in $10,000.
Democrats insist they have a fighting chance to oust Wilkins.
They note that Wilkins is facing his first challenge in a district redrawn three years ago so his rural home base of Amherst County now accounts for less than one-third of his constituents. Democrats added Staunton and southern Augusta County, putting the majority of voters west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the Shenandoah Valley.
Democrats also note that while the 24th House District is solidly Republican, the area is home to more than 5,000 state workers - one of the highest concentrations of any area outside Richmond. Augusta County and Staunton have two state prisons, two state hospitals, regional offices of the Department of Transportation and Game and Inland Fisheries, and a school for the deaf and blind.
State workers angered by Republican Gov. George Allen's efforts to pare the state payroll could be planning to send a message to Wilkins, Democrats say.
But Democrats say their strongest weapon is challenger Edward Plunkett, a political novice who for the past two decades has held the low-profile position of attorney for the Augusta County government.
Plunkett, 51, has the mild-mannered look of a corporate lawyer who spends the day with his nose stuck in the tax code. But he has proved to be a tough campaigner who appears to relish a chance to mix it up with Wilkins.
The Democrat has controlled the agenda of the campaign since this summer, when he raised questions about $30 million worth of state highway contracts since 1983 awarded to a company once headed by Wilkins.
In an interview, Plunkett said he was not implying there is anything illegal about the contracts.
"But is that the kind of relationship voters want between their delegate and a state agency?" he asked. "What if someone is having problems with a road and wants their delegate to chew out the Transportation Department? Is the delegate going to bite the hand of a state agency that feeds him to the tune of $30 million? Who are they going to call?"
Wilkins - who continues to hold stock in Wilkins Construction Co. after selling a controlling interest to a Floyd County businessman five years ago - said the attacks are based on nothing more than innuendo and lies.
Wilkins said Plunkett is "flat wrong" to claim that Wilkins Construction Co. cost taxpayers money because of construction delays that totaled 9,652 days - or 26 years. "I don't know how he got that many days, because it's nowhere near that," Wilkins said. "Anyway, it didn't cost the state anything for the days I was late because I paid the state's costs."
On Oct. 19, Wilkins Construction Co. filed a $750,000 defamation suit against Plunkett, claiming the Democrat had damaged the company's reputation. A hearing on a temporary injunction preventing Plunkett from repeating the charges could take place next week.
"It's an attempt to intimidate me," Plunkett said. "We have a delegate who for years rants and raves against the legal process and frivolous lawsuits, and the first thing he does when he feels some heat in a political campaign is file a lawsuit."
Undeterred, Plunkett continued to press the issue this week with radio ads featuring a mock telephone conversation between Wilkins and U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"Vance," the Gingrich character says, "our personal fortunes are at stake. With your $30 million in state highway contracts and my million-dollar book deal, the last thing we need is this whistleblower Plunkett."
Another issue has been Wilkins' acknowledged ambition to ascend to the speaker's podium.
Plunkett released a letter Wilkins wrote in July to Moss asking that the speaker set up a transition team to prepare for a possible Republican takeover.
The letter, Plunkett said, showed that Wilkins is too preoccupied with personal political ambitions to see what he can do to bring jobs and more state funding to the 24th District.
Wilkins has never fashioned himself a pork-barrel politician. In his view, government tends to muck things up instead of making things better. That is why he would rather kill a bad law than enact a good one.
"We're getting along with the way things are, why make things worse?" he said.
Wilkins, 59, shrugged off suggestions that his quest for a GOP majority and the speakership has caused him to lose touch with his constituents.
He said people tend to forget that he sold his business interests five years ago to devote all of his time to politics. He figured he spent 60 hours a week on Republican matters around the state and 20 hours a week on his district, including at least a weekly trip to Staunton and Augusta county.
One day in August, Wilkins got lost on Augusta County back roads while trying to find a small black congregation, Smokey Row Baptist Church.
Unruffled, he pulled over on the shoulder to peek at a map. "I guarantee you I've been over these roads more in the last four years than my opponent," he said.
Despite his toughest race in a decade, Wilkins has found a little time to help with Republican challengers around the state. He has given one-quarter of his $131,805 campaign fund to other candidates, including $31,500 to a political action committee targeting black-majority districts in the Richmond area.
He has not ruled out spreading more money around the state in the next 10 days.
As for Democratic predictions of his demise, Wilkins flashes a gap-toothed grin. "If they're blowing as much smoke everywhere else as they are here, we're gonna win a whole lot of seats."
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB