Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In Richmond, they are tight allies who sit in the same rowdy "coffin corner" of the House of Delegates, skewering both legislative rivals and the governor alike with their rapier-sharp remarks from the floor.
At home in the Roanoke Valley, they're both facing spirited - and well-funded - challenges from Republicans running on the same conservative platform.
But Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, have chosen to pursue their re-election campaigns, and deal with their opposition to Gov. George Allen's make-over of state government, in two very different ways.
Cranwell, never known for his reticence, tackles Allen head-on.
So challenger Trixie Averill has declared this race to be a referendum on the governor's policies - and brought in Cabinet secretaries, the governor's chief-of-staff, even Allen himself, to help her make the case. Cranwell doesn't shy away from the challenge.
In talks before civic groups, he brings up Allen's name before his opponent does. True, Cranwell will tick off the ways he says he's backed Allen, but that's just the warm-up. Come the heart of his message, Cranwell zeroes in on Allen's tax-cutting, budget-cutting agenda, calling it foolhardy, ill-conceived or worse.
Next door in Roanoke, Woodrum has been pushing many of the same issues. Yet to hear him, you'd hardly know there is a chief executive in Richmond.
Allen's proposed cuts to school funding? Woodrum's literature talks only about "when budget cutters in Richmond sought to cut funding for Roanoke schools ...," as if these were bureaucrats making the decision.
For that matter, Woodrum's challenger, Newell Falkinburg, doesn't talk much about Allen, either. Instead, much of Falkinburg's campaign literature and commercials emphasize his own background as a physician. Indeed, when the two candidates debate, the two often acknowledge their agreement on many issues. "I don't have an awful lot of complaints about him," Falkinburg says. "What bothers me most is strictly a political thing. He's a 16-year incumbent. He's been there for a real long time."
Don't look for either candidate to say that Allen is the main issue in their contest. "This is not a referendum on Governor Allen," Falkinburg insists.
Like the Cranwell-Averill campaign, the Woodrum-Falkinburg race is one of the most expensive in the state. Yet for all that money, it's been one of the quietest races in the region, devoid of the accusatory news conferences and advertisements that have marked campaigns in other districts.
What makes the Cranwell-Averill campaign such a heated affair, with the governor as the central figure, while the Woodrum-Falkinburg contest isn't?
The former is easy to figure out - given Cranwell's role in deep-sixing Allen's proposed budget cuts and Averill's close ties to the governor, as the Western Virginia coordinator for his 1993 campaign.
The latter is not so obvious.
To some extent, the tenor of the campaigns reflects the personalities of the candidates involved.
"Dick is the kind of campaigner who takes things up front and confronts them, almost with no hesitation," says Granger Macfarlane, a former Democratic state senator from Roanoke. "On the other hand, Chip is somewhat more introspective. Chip's approach is to be less confrontational."
Even when Woodrum was giving Allen and the Republicans fits this winter, it was more with wit than with the kind of legislative hardball Cranwell employed. Woodrum's most famous line remains the one about Allen's proposal to increase the staffs of Cabinet secretaries: "Let me tell you, Cleopatra on her barge in the Nile did not have as many people attending her as the Cabinet secretaries in the Allen administration."
But much of it can also be traced to the personalities of the two districts.
Allen took 63 percent of the vote in the 1993 governor's race in Cranwell's district, which is dominated by the GOP-leaning suburbs of Roanoke County and southern Botetourt County. Averill's campaign is based on getting those voters, who cast a ballot for Allen once, to come back to the polls to cast another, indirect, ballot for him this year.
That's why Averill is talking so much about Allen - and why Cranwell may be doing the same. "Perhaps he feels he's got to show why he did what he did to the governor," adds Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. "But that doesn't explain why Woodrum, who's got a better district for Democrats, wouldn't be using the same kind of tactics."
Indeed, Allen won only 49 percent of the vote in Woodrum's district. But that district - which covers Northwest Roanoke, South Roanoke, Raleigh Court and the Hunting Hills-Cave Spring section of Roanoke County - is also one of the most diverse in the state, encompassing both the valley's poorest neighborhoods as well as its most affluent.
That complicates the political calculus for both candidates. It's easy to see why Falkinburg, who says it's to his political advantage to be "his own man," isn't identifying with Allen as strongly as Averill is. "Newell doesn't want to stand up with a big 'R' [for Republican] emblazoned on his forehead," says state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle. "He's looking at that city vote," which is often strong for Democrats.
At the same time, he says, Woodrum may not want to risk offending voters in South Roanoke and Hunting Hills - who vote heavily for Republicans in most elections and who, more importantly, are such regular voters that they'll probably cast a disproportionate share of the vote in the district in an off-year election such as this one.
"It may be a tightrope he's having to walk," Griffith says. "The way I see it, he's got to win South Roanoke [to win the election]. He may feel if he attacks Allen, he'd alienate some of the conservatives, even as he shores up his base" in more middle-class and working-class precincts.
"Woodrum's support in South Roanoke is soft. Most of it is based on friendship and personal contacts built up over the years. It's not ideological. Maybe he does not want to give people an excuse to vote against him."
Woodrum puts a different spin on things, saying he's simply running a "positive" campaign that targets the things he's accomplished for the Roanoke Valley. "I've tried to focus on what I'm for," he says. "I think that's the way campaigns ought to be run. I just hope I'm out of step."
Staff writer Leslie Taylor contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB