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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 7, 1995                   TAG: 9511070040
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VOTERS SAY CANDIDATES TALKED A LOT, BUT SAID LITTLE

TODAY, IT'S THE VOTERS' turn to speak. Some who have been following the campaigns say they're fed up with candidates who weren't specific on the issues and who spent much of the fall attacking their opponents instead.

While the candidates took turns grabbing the spotlight throughout the campaign season, the players whose power becomes most evident today - the voters - stood back and watched the political process unfold.

Some didn't like what they saw or the lack of specifics they heard.

Brenda Poff, a homemaker and school bus driver from Copper Hill in Floyd County, says, "To me, none of them has said yet what they intend to do themselves."

For example, she's tired of candidates who say they support education without focusing on the system's problems - and possible solutions.

She cites a candidate who pledged "rigid and enforced academic standards" without ever explaining what those would be.

Candidates ought to "get right down and put [their] thumb on what's causing these students not to learn."

Clarence Taylor, a Shawsville physician, says education was the election buzz word, with candidates promising "ice cream and apple pie," but no one knows what they will do once the General Assembly convenes.

He agrees with Poff that none of the candidates said how to improve the state's education system - a key issue on Taylor's mind these days.

"The salvation of this country is going to be on the backs of today's children, and they're not being prepared," he says.

As for the mudslinging of this campaign, it's ``not what we want to hear," says Frances Brown, an insurance company worker from Roanoke. "That's the quickest way to keep people from going to the polls."

Carl Schmidt, a Christiansburg retiree, echoes that sentiment: "I get disgusted with all this mudslinging. It gets worse every year.''

Taylor doesn't like the negativity either - he says it distracts attention from the issues - but he has resigned himself to it. "As long as there's American politics, there's going to be mudslinging, unfortunately."

Frank Wilkerson, a Roanoke County restaurateur, doesn't understand the need for some of the mudslinging he's seen. "The Republicans are on a run; they didn't need the negative" campaign to win votes, he says. The candidate who slings mud doesn't score any points with him for honesty and integrity.

Wilkerson says he tries to ignore the campaign, especially as it draws to a close, because "the further it goes, the more screws they try to turn.''

When it comes down to choosing a candidate, there isn't a clear consensus on how to proceed.

"We pray over who to vote for," Schmidt says. "We pray that they will work together." Even late last week, he was undecided on all the races except one - and in that case, he knows the candidate personally.

Poff, also undecided, says she watches television ads with an eye on candidates who stick to the issues.

TV is not the way to reach the people, Brown says. She would rather hear directly from the candidates on issues like education and returning lottery funds to localities.

News footage of candidates going door to door irks the Northwest Roanoke resident.

"They want our votes, but they're not willing to get out here and work for them," Brown says.

Taylor came to a decision gradually. He says he's generally satisfied with the campaign, although "it goes on entirely too long, and there's too much money spent."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB