ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997 TAG: 9703280088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Del. Frank Ruff said Del. Barnie Day does not represent the interests of Southside's conservatives.
A Republican state lawmaker trying to drum up partisan spirit has caused a furor by calling a group of Democrats ``militant women and militant blacks.''
In a speech to Henry County Republicans last week, Del. Frank Ruff of Mecklenburg County was trying to inspire fellow party members to find someone to run against rookie Democratic Del. Barnie Day of Patrick County this fall.
Ruff said Day has fallen under the liberals' sway and does not represent the interests of conservative voters.
Democrats ``sat Barnie Day in the most liberal spot of the House, surrounded by militant women and militant blacks,'' Ruff is quoted as saying in the Martinsville Bulletin. ``They fed him how to vote.''
The remarks, made during what Ruff apparently thought was a closed meeting, have infuriated the female and black lawmakers who sit near Day on the Democratic side of the House.
``Can you imagine thinking of me as a militant?'' said Del. Gladys Keating, a 73-year-old Fairfax County Democrat.
``If you looked at what he said, you would think there were people out there burning their bras,'' Keating said. ``We're much more subtle than that.''
``I formed a women's [legislative] caucus because of people like Frank Ruff, who think that women should be hitched to the plow, that they really shouldn't be [lawmakers],'' Keating added. ``Because we dared to run and represent our people ... it offends his masculinity.''
Ruff said he did not mean to disparage any other lawmakers.
``If somebody called me militantly conservative, I would have no problem with that,'' he said. ``I didn't mean it in any negative terms, just that they are far more liberal than most of Virginia.''
But the remarks have created a furor in Day's conservative Southside district, which stretches 135 miles from tobacco country to the Blue Ridge.
Del. Marian Van Landingham, an Alexandria Democrat who sits near Day in the House, said Ruff's remarks were revealing. ``It's really pretty outrageous,'' she said. ``It's certainly an example of a closed, ideological mind.''
Del. Flora Crittenden, D-Newport News, who is black, reacted philosophically. ``Well, I guess I've been called worse things in my lifetime,'' said the 72-year-old former guidance counselor.
Day said he was surprised, but not shocked, by Ruff's comments.
Day said that regardless what Ruff believes, ``the folks in the district elected me not to represent the Democratic Party or the independents or the blue eyes, but to represent the people of this district. And that's what I'm doing.''
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