ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602190105
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DEMOCRAT L. F. Payne's recent decision to retire from the U.S. House of Representatives has set off a scramble among prospective successors. Not until November, however, will more than a scattering of 5th District residents have any say in the matter.
That's because state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount apparently will draw no opposition for the Democratic nomination, and a contest for the Republican nomination is to be settled by an archaic convention system whose cost and inconvenience deter participation by all but dedicated party junkies and political activists.
Republicans Frank Ruff, a member of the state House of Delegates from Mecklenburg County, and George Landrith, a Charlottesville lawyer who won 47 percent of the vote against Payne in 1994, have announced they're seeking the party's nod. Others may also enter the race. Such interest reflects a GOP belief that the mostly rural Southside district, which on its western end includes Franklin, Patrick, Henry and most of Bedford counties, is ready to turn to a Republican congressman.
The belief is not without foundation. In other elections, the district has become one of Virginia's more reliably Republican areas. In 1994, Oliver North carried the 5th against U.S. Sen. Charles Robb while losing the state; in 1993, Michael Farris carried the district against Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer while losing the state.
But, while Payne's initial election in 1988 might be attributable to Republican divisions, not so Payne's subsequent re-elections. Moreover, Goode is locally popular and generally regarded these days as part of the Democratic Party's conservative wing.
"Conservative," however, is a broad label, and the general-election campaigns presumably will highlight differences between Goode's and the Republican nominee's respective versions of "conservative."
Or maybe not. On many issues, such as support for tobacco and guns, there likely will be few discernible differences.
And for now, anyway, while Goode's lack of opposition for the Democratic nomination is a measure of his political popularity, it also means he has no political imperative to undertake the defining and distinguishing process - as a "conservative" or anything else.
Ruff and Landrith, meanwhile, along with anyone else who joins the fray, will give Republicans a choice. But, by contesting for votes only among insiders who happen to attend local and district GOP conventions, they are apt to focus less on issues of general interest than on litmus tests of ideological purity and partisan loyalty, not to mention special interests capable of getting bodies to a convention on time.
Virginia needs fewer unopposed candidacies for party nominations, and it needs more primary elections to decide among them. More of both would benefit the electorate, if not always the politicians.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB