Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511260003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A partisan stalemate may be shaping up on Roanoke City Council over a temporary replacement for resigning Councilman John Edwards.
As council meets privately Monday to discuss selecting Edwards' successor, its three Republicans are pressing for a nonpolitical "caretaker" who will fill the seat only through June 30.
Meanwhile, the panel's three Democrats say they prefer someone willing to run next May for the two years left in Edwards' unexpired term.
Edwards, who defeated incumbent state Sen. Brandon Bell in the Nov. 7 election, will join the General Assembly when it convenes early in January.
Under city ordinance, it will take four votes on the normally nonpartisan council to choose Edwards' replacement. And Edwards can't vote, because the selection cannot be made until after he resigns. Harry Carver, his campaign manager, doesn't expect that to happen until the end of next month.
That means Republicans, if they stick together, can stymie the appointment of anyone likely to run in the special election next May.
"We're opting for a caretaker," said Councilman Mac McCadden, one of the panel's three Republicans.
"I'm probably the most vehement about it,'' McCadden said. ``I want the citizens of the area to elect who they think ought to be on council. I don't want to use it as a catapult for somebody's political agenda."
"That seems to be the general consensus of the three of us," said Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, the body's senior member. "Of course, that's subject to change," she added. "Until the final votes are in, you never really know."
Lingering bitterness over Edwards' appointment in 1993 to fill the term of resigning Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick may lie beneath Republicans' desire for a caretaker council member.
Back then, Bowles and McCadden tried to get Democrats on council to appoint someone who wouldn't run for council in the next election. But as the only Republicans on council at that time, they were outvoted 4-2 by Democrats, who selected Edwards.
Ever since Edwards - who tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination for Congress in 1992 - announced for the state Senate early this year, GOP members have been quietly sniping that he was using the council seat as a means to higher office.
His appointment to council in 1993 "was a great play. [Democrats] orchestrated that from the beginning," Councilman Jack Parrott said. "I don't want us to appoint somebody who's going to use it as a steppingstone to something higher. ... I just don't want to get used."
Mayor David Bowers, who called for the closed-door meeting Monday, said he doesn't believe the selection will cause a partisan stalemate.
Neither does Councilman William White. Both of them, along with Councilwoman Linda Wyatt, favor choosing someone willing to run and remain on council if elected by voters next May.
Wyatt likes the Rev. Nelson Harris, chairman of the city School Board, who waged a failed bid for council in 1994. He is viewed as a favorite for the slot, but he is unlikely to accept it if he has to promise not to run in the special election next May.
by CNB