ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON AND RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITERS
The race for the only open congressional seat in Virginia carries national and statewide implications.
For starters, the 5th District race will most likely help decide which party controls the House of Representatives.
Rural Southern districts like the 5th have been voting Republican in the past few years, but 5th District Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, bucked that trend and was re-elected two years ago.
Many thought Payne had passed his toughest test and would be the favorite again this year.
But Payne announced his retirement in January so he can campaign for lieutenant governor in 1997.
Republican George Landrith, who lost a close race to Payne in 1994, is running again. He has brought in Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who during an August stop in Danville pledged his support toward getting Landrith a coveted seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
The Democrats, knowing they would need a strong candidate to beat Landrith, embraced state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount, even though many were angry over his support of a power-sharing plan that benefited Republicans in the Virginia Senate.
"You can't ignore the fact that Virgil is a very likable individual," said Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County. "He has a Ronald Reagan quality of people liking him, even when they don't agree with him politically. The Senate Democrats could have strangled him last January, but ask them if they like Virgil. Yeah, they like Virgil."
Goode's campaign has been a contrast to Landrith's. While Landrith has been appearing with national GOP figures such as Gingrich and would-be presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes, Goode has been handing out his trademark colored pencils.
He rarely mentions Landrith, or the other candidate in the race, Tex Wood of Patrick County, who represents the Virginia Independent Party - an offshoot of Ross Perot's Reform Party.
A Goode victory in the 5th would set off a chain reaction of events with statewide repercussions.
The special election for his open legislative seat - probably sometime in December - would decide which party has a majority in the state Senate, now deadlocked with 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans.
There has been much speculation on who would succeed him. Insiders are betting the Democrats will run either Armstrong or Del. Roscoe Reynolds, who is also from Henry County. The Republicans would run Del. Allen Dudley of Rocky Mount, many believe.
Depending on who won the Senate race, there would be another election to fill the winning candidate's House seat.
But first things first.
As Election Day draws near, here's a look at the congressional campaign:
Goode has employed the same down-home strategy he has always used, with a twist - he has raised plenty of money, much of it for television advertising, something he rarely took advantage of in the past.
The meat of Goode's campaign has been served the same as always. He has driven from corner to corner of the massive district attending community barbecues and other events. Some wondered if he could run the same country store to country store campaign he has run over the years.
"I can tell you that by mid-summer, many of the Republican-leaning interest groups had written Landrith off, and they wrote him off mainly because Virgil Goode was perfectly positioned to win the district," said University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato, who lives in the district.
"He's loved. Over the 20 years he's been in the state Senate, Goode has well-reflected the innate conservatism of his district, and he's just a hometown boy made good, and they love him for it. He hasn't changed. There's nothing phony or elitist about Virgil. Virgil is Virgil. Look at his accent, you know? Political consultants have been trying to get him to change it for years. He is what he is. He doesn't really care."
The size of the 5th District alone - it runs north to Charlottesville, south to Halifax County and west to Patrick County, and includes Bedford, Franklin and Henry counties - makes a handshaking, meet-the-voters approach tough.
The conservative Democrat has been on the road almost every day for months driving a Ford sedan packed with "Goode for Congress" pencils, emery boards and lapel stickers.
When Landrith has attacked, Goode has handed out more pencils.
The only remotely controversial item attributed to Goode was a statement he made after he received the Democratic nomination for Congress in Charlottesville months ago.
Goode told a cheering throng that, if elected, he wouldn't "goose-step in the army of Newt Gingrich." Goode didn't mention Landrith's name during the speech, but the Republican has tried to make an issue of the statement.
Although he has never been elected to public office, Landrith has found himself on the defensive like an incumbent - even though it hasn't necessarily been Goode who has been attacking.
The Albemarle County lawyer has had to fight off many distractions - from a heated nomination battle, to a month-long bout with the flu, to his wife's trial and conviction for assault and battery after slapping a pet store owner, who was convicted of assaulting her in the same incident.
"I don't think he's having as much fun this time," said Landrith's friend and former law partner, James Skeen.
Landrith hasn't really stopped running for office since January 1994.
He has projected himself as a hard-working father of five who knows what it's like to scrape to make ends meet, but Landrith hasn't worked as a lawyer much over the last two years.
He said that he has been keeping himself and his family afloat off savings he and his wife banked during 14 years of marriage and that he'll be broke in November.
But, according to his own statements and court records, he has received more than $200,000 over the last 10 years from family money, including trusts and inheritances. He and his siblings stand to become heirs to trusts worth more than $2million.
Landrith acknowledged receiving what he called "not a significant sum of money" from a trust set up by his deceased grandfather. Landrith used the fund to supplement his lost income when he was running in 1994.
Landrith received $38,500 from the trust - $3,500 a month from January through November 1994. But Landrith asked for $4,000 a month - about $500 a month more than he was making as a lawyer at the time, according to correspondence to Landrith from the bank that oversees the trust.
In 1994, Landrith came out of nowhere and almost upset an incumbent. But this year, his campaign hasn't generated the same momentum.
"His biggest mistake was the nastiness in that convention fight," Sabato said. "That was so stupid by a candidate that was facing a tough battle in the fall. Just arrogance."
The convention battle between Landrith and Del. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, set the tone for his campaign early.
In mid-summer, two longtime advisers who helped garner Landrith national attention in 1994 left the campaign. His new staff doesn't have as much experience with congressional races.
Last time, Landrith was targeted for help by the national Republican Party, and was given $60,000 - the maximum then allowable by law.
This year, the national Republican Committee gave him only $5,000.
Goode has out-raised Landrith 2-to-1, despite a number of fancy meet-the-candidate dinners sponsored for the Republican by politicians in Washington, D.C.
Goode's television ads have been on the air for weeks. In 1994, Landrith waged war with Payne over the airwaves, with new television ads almost daily. But as of Tuesday, he was still planning his first television spot; instead, he has been trying to counter Goode's ads through news conferences and debates.
At a forum in Danville, Landrith berated Goode for voting for a cigarette tax increase in the state Senate. Truth is, Goode has never voted for a cigarette tax.
Landrith later apologized, admitting his error and attributing it to bad information from a consultant.
A letter written by Landrith's former campaign finance chairman also made headlines and sparked humorous "Slow Talkers for Goode" bumper stickers across Southside Virginia.
Mark Cannon, who lives in Northern Virginia, wrote that Goode "speaks slowly" and "has a less magnetic family" than Landrith's.
Not to be left out, the VIP candidate, Tex Wood, did something a little unorthodox himself. In a news release that laid out Wood's positions on foreign trade and tax amnesty, he also admitted to two convictions for driving under the influence, the last one about 10 years ago.
"I have scrounged through my past from high school through the [Vietnam] War and college and all the way to now looking for dirt, concluding that I really haven't had much fun at all, but I am including the negative in this release because I think such should be known."
For the record, Wood says he hasn't had a drink since.
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshots of Goode, Landrith, Wood KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB