Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511050010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ATKINS LENGTH: Medium
The governor's third stump stop in the Marion area since July highlighted again Smyth County's role in Tuesday's election. Nearly one out of every five voters in the 39th Senate District lives in the county. That's second only to Montgomery County, which has 41 percent of the district's voters. Grayson County, Galax and parts of Pulaski and Carroll counties round out the district.
Cupp, 55, a Blacksburg real estate developer, is trying to unseat six-term Democratic state Sen. Madison Marye, 69, a Shawsville cattle farmer.
Kidd, a first-term delegate, is being opposed by Democrat John Tate for the House seat covering Smyth and parts of Grayson and Tazewell counties.
Fresh from tossing the coin to launch the University of Virginia's Thursday night upset of Florida State, Allen, a former UVa backup quarterback, led a squad of local GOP candidates on an upbeat handshaking tour through the 300-employee Merillat Industries Inc. plant beside Interstate 81.
Over the din of the cabinet-door manufacturing process, Allen chatted with employees and introduced them to Cupp and Kidd.
One 16-year employee, David Wyatt of Groseclose, said it was the first time he could remember a governor coming by the plant.
After the meet-and-greet, Allen announced that capital investment in the state rose 72 percent and job creation increased 40 percent in the first half of this year, according to new state Department of Economic Development statistics. Those figures don't include three major job-creation bonanzas announced since June: the Motorola plant outside Richmond, the IBM/Toshiba project in Manassas, and the Gateway 2000 computer plant in Hampton Roads.
Allen said the numbers provide more evidence that his effort to bring new jobs to the state is working. Holding a chunk of scrap lumber and a Merillat baseball cap from his tour, Allen linked his job-creation goals to the people he'd just met inside the plant.
"They do an honest, tough, hard day's work here, and we want to make sure those folks have jobs ... for themselves and for their children," Allen said. "It's essential, though, that we have the right tax and regulatory policies ... because we're in competition with other states and other nations."
Allen said he needed Kidd and Cupp as allies.
"Pat Cupp will be, gosh, a hundred percent better than the obstructionist that's in there, who doesn't think we ought to abolish parole, who doesn't seem to understand that we need to improve if we're going to get more jobs for Virginia," Allen said.
Marye this week criticized Cupp for a new campaign mailing that says again that the senator failed to vote for parole abolition. In fact, Marye missed voting for the Senate version, but voted for an identical version of parole reform that originated in the House. Both bills passed and became law. They included aspects of anti-crime legislation Marye had introduced previously, including the three-strikes-and-you're-out provision.
Allen didn't pull any punches when asked about complaints by Lt. Gov. Don Beyer and other Democrats about negative Republican advertising in the campaign's waning days.
"They don't want to talk about the issues; they just want to carp and whine," Allen said. "Of course, I think it is very negative, their record; it's very anti-Virginian, and I don't think it's desirable, and what we are offering is positive, constructive change to move Virginia forward."
Smyth County Sheriff John Grubb, a Republican locked in a tight election battle with Democrat David Bradley and an independent candidate, said he thought Cupp will carry Smyth. "I think Pat's going to run stronger down here than a lot of people think," Grubb said.
The local Democratic chairman, David Boehm, disagreed when contacted later. Marye "has an excellent base of support here in Smyth County," Boehm said. He expects the sheriff's race, in particular, to bring out more Democratic voters.
The governor's visit came an hour after U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, made his own endorsement in Marion of Marye and Tate. Boucher called the two elections critical, given pending cuts to Medicare and Medicaid at the federal level, which may shift more burden onto states. The governor, Boucher said, previously has tried to reduce state-funded programs for the elderly, such as Meals on Wheels. Only Democratic majorities in the House and Senate stopped him, Boucher argued.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB