THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609300039
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DWAYNE YANCEY, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: 48 lines
Give six ordinary voters a chance to question Virginia's candidates for U.S. Senate in a televised debate. What do you get?
Six pretty angry voters.
Moments after the John Warner-Mark Warner debate concluded Sunday and the microphones were disconnected, the studio audience in Roanoke - linked by satellite to the debate in Williamsburg - delivered its verdict on the hourlong encounter: Thumbs down on both candidates.
Asked if the Warners answered the voters' questions, the group shouted in unison: ``No!''
``They took our questions and turned them into whatever they wanted to say,'' complained Alton Washington, a Roanoke minister.
``Basically, it was political rhetoric,'' said Mary Louise Nackley, a retired Roanoke office worker. ``It didn't help me make up my mind. Both were pretty much full of bull. They think we're dumb. They speak down to us. They think we don't want the answers to the questions. If they gave straight answers, the public would appreciate it.''
Neither Warner answered the questions the voters posed, complained the half-dozen voters who assembled at Roanoke public television station WBRA as part of Virginia's first televised debate featuring ordinary voters.
Instead, the candidates delivered what appeared to be rehearsed responses that sometimes only lightly touched on the original question, the voters said.
``I'd fail both of them,'' said Bruce Prillaman, an industrial purchasing agent from Roanoke County. ``The candidates have got to learn we're not really dumb and don't want to be fed pablum everyday. We don't want their canned responses.''
Prillaman said he posed a question about what criteria the Warners would use to make decisions - and cited, as an example, a ``smart'' road in Montgomery County. John Warner said he backed the proposed high-tech highway, but he never explained why. Instead he went on to talk about the need for tax relief.
Henry Sullivan, a Roanoke consultant, said the debate had changed his mind, but not necessarily for the better: ``Now I have no clue who I'm going to vote for.''
Sullivan had his own suggestion for future debates: ``Usually after these things they have the pundits on. Wouldn't it have been nice if the candidates heard our evaluation?''
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA DEBATES CANDIDATES by CNB