ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 19, 1996 TAG: 9612190031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ray L. Garland
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
IT WASN'T even close in the closely watched special election to choose a successor to Democratic state Sen. Virgil Goode, elected last month to replace retiring U.S. Rep. L.F. Payne in the Southside 5th District. Democrat Roscoe Reynolds gained 58 percent of the nearly 30,000 votes cast over Republican Allen Dudley.
As both men are members of the House of Delegates, there will now be another special election to fill the seat Reynolds is vacating, which centers on Henry County.
Reynolds' victory preserved the 20-20 tie between the parties prevailing before Goode resigned. Republicans had high, though perhaps unrealistic, hopes that Dudley would give them an outright majority in one house of the General Assembly for the first time this century.
While that result might have trimmed a bit the sails of Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, who presides over the Senate and breaks an occasional tie, it likely wouldn't have changed the power-sharing arrangement that Goode forced after the 1995 election produced 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans in that body. The deal was supposed to remain in effect until a new Senate is elected in 1999.
Under Goode's compromise, Republicans gained a historic parity with Democrats in committee assignments, and now chair several panels. The powerful Finance Committee, which handles all measures dealing with both taxes and appropriations, was placed under a unique co-chairmanship.
While Goode had certainly made his mark in state politics long before he refused to support his Democratic colleagues in assuming control of the Senate on the strength of Beyer's tie-breaking power, that action raised him to a new plateau. It also placed him in a fine posture to win the congressional seat. But there would not appear to be any connection between the two events. Goode stood firm against his party's hope of maintaining its traditional control of the Senate the month before Payne announced he was retiring "to spend more time" with his family. The departing congressman is now the sole candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1997 on a ticket headed by Beyer.
There is nothing, apparently, more gratifying to voters than a politician who takes what is seen as a principled stand against his own party. Some will say that just saved Sen. John Warner from defeat at the hands of megabucks challenger Mark Warner. But the way Goode conducted his rebellion, with quiet persistence that right be done, was a source of inspiration to those who had a bellyful of self-serving politicians. To make his point, Goode even sacrificed his own committee chairmanship.
In his long career, which began with a landslide victory in another special election when he was only 27, Goode has charted a loner's course. Very much a populist firebrand in his early years, he seemed gradually to sour on the tax-and-spend direction of his party. But there was always the sense of a politician who conducts his private life in harmony with his public persona - at one with the "little man" and not in it for money or prestige.
This will not be a case of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." While the only new member of the Virginia delegation, Goode is one of the most skilled politicians this state has ever sent to Congress. Having already formed a firm bond with his district, he can exercise a high degree of independence to serve what he sees as the national interest. Though it would be far too much to see a rather shy freshman as a power broker, he can play a more constructive role than most members of the Democratic minority. That's because Goode is both a genuine populist and conservative.
Democrats will hail the strong showing by Reynolds as proof the party is now in a good position to win back the governorship next year and hold its majority in the 100-member House of Delegates. That was just increased by one, to 53 seats, in another special election to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of GOP Del. Richard Fisher in Fairfax County. There, Democrat George Lovelace won 52 percent of the vote.
In what was supposed to be a more difficult district for Republicans, former GOP Del. John Rust was elected with 54 percent in another special election in Fairfax to fill the unexpired term of the late Del. Robert Harris, a long-serving Republican.
Considering the timing, a week before Christmas, voter turnout in the Reynolds-Dudley race was strong, which no doubt testifies to the vast resources both parties poured into the district and the fact Southside people take their politics seriously.
With Goode's active help, Reynolds won by presenting himself as Goode's clone - a Southside conservative who doesn't give a rap whether a thing wears a Democratic or Republican label, so long as it's good for the people. By always speaking as if he were at the same time masticating a mouthful of grits, Reynolds had the good-ol'-boy routine down pat. In reality, he's a skilled courthouse politician of a very old school and loyal fugleman to chief Democratic sword bearer, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell.
It's also a fact that Reynolds' base in the counties of Henry and Patrick was more populous than Dudley's in Franklin and Floyd, and Reynolds had far more time in the House to consolidate his.
It will be said Dudley lost because he went negative. But Reynolds had a pretty good start, accusing Dudley of supporting Gov. George Allen's plan to cut $15 million from public education, and other charges in similar vein. No one bothered to point out - and it would have been pointless to have done so - that the "cut" came from rising appropriations for public schools exceeding $7 billion a year, and was part of a package to give tax relief designed to help those with modest incomes most.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
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