THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140280
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Harvey L. Lindsay Jr., a downtown business leader, voiced a game plan six years ago for how to influence elections in which he no longer had a vote.
``Even under a ward system, people will need money and support,'' Lindsay said in November 1990, one week after the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered Norfolk to disband its at-large voting system.
``I'm not saying that we should interfere in other neighborhoods, but I would be interested in who was running for the council in another ward. I would want to identify and talk with him. I see nothing wrong with that.''
Last Tuesday, Lindsay showed how well such a strategy worked as he and other West Siders helped Councilwoman-elect Daun S. Hester amass a $30,000 campaign fund, put her face and name before voters, and defeat five opponents by getting almost half the total vote.
Hester says she will be an independent City Council member.
``I haven't made any promises to anyone for anything,'' Hester said. ``My role on council is to make the best decisions I can make, for the good of Superward 7 and the good of the city. People want me to be a responsible leader. That's what I plan to do.''
Hester notes she is the first woman on the council who is also black.
``It's history, and it's important for the African-American community,'' Hester said. ``It's important to know that blacks and whites can come together and elect a candidate. It's important to bring some unity into the city.''
With such a large margin of victory, Hester probably would have won without their help, said several of Hester's West Side backers. But they said they were proud their financial support helped elect a moderate African-American who valued unity and compromise.
``I think it could be one of the most significant City Council elections in the past 25 to 30 years,'' Lindsay said after the election. ``It will help to continue what I think has been good government.''
Had William E. ``Wes'' Swindell Jr. won, the more ward-oriented politicians - Councilman W. Randy Wright, Herbert M. Collins Sr. and Paul R. Riddick - would have commanded a working majority. Odds are the city would have had a new city manager, and possibly a new mayor, say council members. In Norfolk, the City Council selects one of its members to serve as mayor. The council also hires and fires city managers.
For decades, city business leaders controlled most Norfolk council seats through a combination of money and votes emerging from the city's more affluent West Side neighborhoods, from Ghent to Larchmont to Edgewater.
The Supreme Court disbanded the at-large system in 1990 when it upheld a series of lower-court decisions that the at-large had diluted minority voting strength.
Since the council's switch to a ward system in 1992, the council has become more neighborhood-oriented, more diverse, and more willing to air and resolve differences in public.
But Hester's election showed that the West Side can still have influence across the city.
Lindsay, owner of a commercial real-estate firm, gave $1,000 to Hester and also helped lead other contributors to Hester's campaign. Many of the same contributors gave to Councilman Mason C. Andrews, who won Superward 6, which includes the West Side.
The strategy doesn't always work. Hester lost in 1994 by 800 votes to Riddick, despite having twice as much in campaign funds on Election Day. Much of Hester's $17,000 then came from the West Side.
This time, Hester had about twice as much money as opponent Horace T. ``Tommy'' White, and many times more than Swindell. White and Swindell each won about 20 percent of the vote, making them Hester's closest competitors.
Hester will take office July 1. Councilmen Collins and Riddick, who supported Swindell, campaigned vigorously against her.
During the campaign, Riddick said Hester's West-Side support showed ``she can be bought.''
But this week, Riddick said Hester was ``a bright and articulate young lady.''
``I think Daun will be a pleasant addition to council,'' Riddick said. ``We have to realize she got elected fair and square, and we have to work with her as hard as we can.''
Joshua P. Darden Jr., another long-time city business leader and Hester contributor, said her victory was in the tradition of other moderate African-American leaders that the city's establishment had successfully backed, including former Councilmen Rev. John H. Foster, Judge Joseph A. Jordan Jr. and the Rev. Joseph N. Green, who is retiring from the seat Hester won.
Having such council members, Darden said, ``helps the council reach a consensus in the interests of the whole city. You have to guard against the potential of ward government, where candidates are more worried about their ward than the problems facing the city as a whole.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Daun S. Hester got almost half the total vote.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION NORFOLK RESULTS ANALYSIS by CNB