THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410270437
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
Imagine for a moment that your government is a wheezing old Ford sedan and that you've trusted it for a family tour of America.
The old Ford's frame is sound, but it's chugging and lumbering and not getting you where you need to go. You need a mechanic.
So you pull into a Virginia town and there, at the crossroads, are two auto shops: on the right is Chapman's Car Care; nearer to the middle of the road is Pickett's Automotive.
At Pickett's, the owner tells you that the old Ford can run just fine if you trust it to an experienced hand who knows how to tighten the right screws, massage the proper levers, tinker with the cams and gears.
At Chapman's, the owner shakes his head and tells you that the old crate is burning too much oil, its bearings are shot, and it won't take you anywhere without a new set of rings and pistons.
Both shops are a little vague about the cost. Chapman says he'll be easier on your wallet (he'll also tell you it's burning too much oil because you let Pickett work on it); Pickett says he's been doing this for years and everybody trusts him. Ask anybody in town.
So, whom do you trust to get you back on the road?
That allegory illustrates the dilemma of trying to decide between Jim Chapman and incumbent Rep. Owen B. Pickett in the 2nd District congressional race. Chapman, the Republican challenger, is an Ollie North/Newt Gingrich conservative and far more inclined to agitate for dramatic changes in the way Congress does business.
Pickett - despite what Chapman says - is no Bill Clinton liberal, and sightings of the word ``Democrat'' in connection with his name are rare. Pickett is so far out of the party mainstream that Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, included him on a short list of Democrats who might bolt the party if the Republicans creep within takeover distance in the House of Representatives in November.
Pickett's ability to cover both of his flanks - to appear conservative in Virginia Beach's GOP suburbs while appealing to the Democrats in Norfolk's urban precincts - makes him a difficult target. Only 3percent of those questioned in a recent poll said he was doing a bad job in Congress. With ratings like that, uprooting Owen Pickett could be as difficult as digging out a stump with a dessert spoon.
Chapman has run a smart, relentless campaign that was designed to convince anybody who will listen that he and Pickett are miles apart in governmental philosophy. A study of the candidates' views on a sampling of issues, which accompanies this article, shows that the distance might be measured in yards rather than miles.
On defense, and defense-related foreign policy questions - critical in the military-dominated 2nd District - their responses are markedly similar. Chapman has argued in campaign appearances that Pickett endangered Oceana Naval Air Station by not getting the latest naval attack aircraft for the base, making it vulnerable in the 1995 round of base closures. Pickett counters that he has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to stitch together a save-Oceana coalition.
Chapman has also tried to hang Pickett from two very different yardarms on the defense-spending question: He contends that Pickett is part of a Clinton-Democrat cabal bent on wrecking the military through overzealous cutbacks; yet, he paints Pickett as one of the most free-spending members of Congress.
Bipartisan watchdog groups fault Pickett's record on budget issues - a true dent in his ``I'm no liberal'' armor. The congressman shrugs off such criticism as the cost of his willingness to vote for big-ticket defense programs that are vital to the Navytown folks back home.
The sharpest differences between these two candidates show up in questions about their approach to the mechanics of government - how they would fix the engine of that allegorical Ford sedan.
Chapman, dealing from the conservative deck, favors congressional term limits, a line-item veto that would allow the president to cancel individual spending programs, and a binding, legal requirement that Congress balance the federal budget. Each would represent a considerable shift in the balance of power between the congressional and executive branches of government.
Pickett either opposes each of those concepts or favors substantially softer versions of them. (On term limits, for example, he suggests a rather generous limit of 18 years for congressmen .) He does not like people ``tinkering with the Constitution,'' as he said in a recent speech.
In the final hours of the recent session of Congress, a visitor was watching with Pickett as the Republicans tortured the Democrats at every turn in a struggle over some last-minute legislation. When the visitor grumbled that such shenanigans were causing voters to lose patience, Pickett replied: ``No, that's just the system. If you know how this system works, you can make it work to your advantage. It just takes patience.''
That philosophy shows up as a slogan in Pickett's campaign: ``Make government work for you!''
It's a statement that drives Jim Chapman up a wall. Sipping an iced tea at a Norfolk restaurant one night last week, after a long, red-eye day of wheedling for votes, Chapman's blood pressure jumped as that phrase came to mind.
``Can you imagine him saying that?'' Chapman said. `` `Make government work for you.' That's preposterous. Government isn't working for any of us.
``That's why I got into this race to begin with.''
In nine days, Hampton Roads goes looking for Mr. Goodwrench. Whether they believe they need a little tune-up or a complete overhaul is still up in the air. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
KEYWORDS: HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE 2ND DISTRICT CANDIDATES by CNB