THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411010087
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
If the 2nd District congressional race were decided just in the tightly bound precincts of urban Norfolk, Democratic incumbent Rep. Owen B. Pickett would have reason to breathe pretty easily just now.
In 1992, his first encounter with Republican challenger Jim Chapman, Pickett carried 42 of the 43 Norfolk precincts that were included in the 2nd District, piling up a Norfolk advantage of 27,869 to 16,909. Chapman carried just one precinct, Canterbury, by a slim 10 votes.
Across the district, Pickett pulled 55 percent of the vote, but in Norfolk he beat Chapman 62 percent to 38.
However, with Chapman running a smarter, richer campaign in 1994, neither candidate is simply assuming that Norfolk will fall that heavily into Pickett's pocket.
Chapman's campaign cannot reasonably expect to carry the Democrat-rich Norfolk vote, but they're hoping to make inroads that will help their overall total, allowing them to tighten the race in bedroom communities of Virginia Beach.
``Our plan is to do better in Norfolk,'' said Mike McElwain, Chapman's campaign manager, ``and to do better in the North End of Virginia Beach, then beat him in the southern Virginia Beach suburbs.''
To that end, Chapman has been making frequent forays into blue-collar neighborhoods where he hopes to make friends among the middle-class working families that are believed to be in the vanguard of those disaffected with the Clinton White House and congressional shenanigans.
Early in the campaign, Chapman walked the streets of Ocean View, pushing doorbells and stuffing screen doors with literature. As late as last weekend, with his strongest hopes still 15 miles to the east in Virginia Beach, Chapman was keeping a heavy Norfolk schedule, appearing at farmers' markets, Halloween celebrations and community gatherings across the city.
What Chapman is up against in Norfolk, though, is a solid Pickett coalition of port-city business and military interests, and a concentration of African-American voters with a tradition of pulling the Democratic levers. Some of the strongest black precincts were chiseled out of the 2nd District before the 1992 election and lumped into the minority-opportunity 3rd District, which is now a stronghold for Democrat Rep. Bobby Scott.
But Pickett is expected to score heavily with the minority voters who remain in the 2nd. A Mason-Dixon poll taken three weeks from Election Day showed Pickett with a 16-point lead. Among black voters, however, Pickett was favored 77 percent to 3 percent, with the rest listed as ``undecided.''
Pickett's campaign advertising and speeches play heavily to his theme of protecting Hampton Roads bases from cutbacks, an unbending support for a strong military, and independence from the more liberal initiatives of the Clinton administration.
Chapman, who is an Army veteran and a child of a military family, argues that he can be just as effective an advocate on military issues. But he has tried to broaden the dialogue of the race, telling a civic-league audience last week, ``If you listen to Owen Pickett's commercials you'd believe that the only issue in the race is the Navy and Oceana (Naval Air Station). They are not the only issue.''
Chapman has adopted to his campaign the national GOP agenda of support for a balanced budget amendment, term limits on representatives and senators, a line-item veto power for the president and tax credits for parents who send their children to private or church-sponsored schools. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photos
OWEN B. PICKETT
Age: 62
Residence: Virginia Beach
Party affiliation: Democrat
Education: Virginia Tech, University of Richmond Law School
Occupation: Congressman; background as attorney, accountant
Campaign sound bite: ``Make Government Work for You!''
JAMES L. CHAPMAN IV
Age: 37
Residence: Virginia Beach
Party affiliation: Republican
Education: Virginia Tech, Washington and Lee University Law
School
Occupation: Lawyer, partner in Norfolk firm of Crenshaw, Ware &
Martin, specializing in maritime law
Campaign sound bite: ``Send Bill Clinton a Message''
KEYWORDS: HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE 2ND DISRICT CANDIDATES by CNB