ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610070118
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
"The problem is not in Washington. The problem is every time we look in the mirror.''
IF there was someone to take up his cause, George "Tex" Wood says he'd let somebody else do it.
Problem is, he says he's yet to find that person. But how easy is it to find someone with the "soul of an Indiana pig farmer who likes to trout fish," as Wood describes himself.
His political philosophy is just as elusive.
"A progressive in the modern sense of Teddy Roosevelt might come close," he says.
Wood is trying to buck the odds to defeat two better known and better financed candidates to earn the 5th District seat in Congress.
Those odds grew larger when Wood announced his candidacy just six weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
But that wasn't his fault.
Wood came off the bench to pinch-hit for the Virginia Independent Party after its candidate in the 5th District, Gary Thomas of Pittsylvania County, dropped out of the race in late August.
Thomas was the party's first congressional candidate. The VIP - an offshoot of presidential candidate Ross Perot's Reform Party - received state certification this year and now has a spot on the ballot with the Democratic and Republican parties
The VIP snubbed Wood's bid for the U.S. Senate, declining to extend its nomination to him at a convention in Lexington - a decision that didn't make Wood too happy.
When Thomas dropped out of the congressional race, Wood, a college instructor from Patrick County, became an obvious replacement, said Louis Herrink, the party's state chairman.
He's got name recognition in the 5th because of his state Senate run and his publicized court victory to have a state ballot deadline for independent candidates ruled unconstitutional because it's too early.
But, party leaders were leery about the reception they'd get from Wood after his failed Senate bid.
Wood, an outspoken man with a sharp wit, said he was ready to let bygones be bygones.
He's now trying to make up ground on Goode and Landrith.
He won't have any problems getting his points across.
Wood's tongue - he's a published poet - can work like a hot knife through butter.
Here are a few Wood-isms from the past few weeks;
*Tex on the 5th District race before he entered it: "Like most political races to which we've been subjected in recent years, the one for Congress here in the 5th drips with soundbites and references to family values, et alia promises and catch phrases designed either to arouse indignation or warm or fuzzy feelings, but little of substance."
*Tex on the lack of protection for the American worker: "Instead, we see government shut down, hear weeks of pompous debates over a (for the love of Pete) Constitutional amendment against flag burning because some jackass in Texas burned one "
*Tex, campaigning at the Martinsville speedway, on himself: "The sheet metal is a bit bent and rusty, the transmission isn't what it has been, but the engine hums."
*Tex on changing government: "We can improve things, if only we will."
Wood, a wiry man who talks with an educated drawl, holds English degrees from Duke and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He won a Purple Heart as a Marine rifleman in Vietnam. His campaign resume says he's been a construction worker, real estate broker, newspaper reporter and TV news director.
But he says he knows what it's like to struggle with debt and work more than one job to get by. He's doing that now. He's a part-time English instructor at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville. He teaches English and math from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. to graveyard-shift workers at a textile mill in Fieldale. And he works part time at a restaurant/convenience store. "I don't sleep a lot," he says.
Wood's main campaign issue is the U.S. trade deficit, which he says is behind the loss of manufacturing jobs in Southside Virginia.
If elected, Wood says he'll work to: Gut the trade agreements known as NAFTA and GATT, which he says created more foreign jobs for U.S.-based companies; institute a period of Internal Revenue Service amnesty; and cut the number of hours for an employee to be considered "part-time" so more workers qualify for benefits.
"The problem is not in Washington," he says. "The problem is every time we look in the mirror. The problem is out here - our own lack of activity. Until we take our destiny back, our destiny is going to be controlled by the same people who control it now."
Staff writer Mike Hudson contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB