DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706140269

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  108 lines

LOOKS LIKE SLIM PICKINGS ON FALL BALLOT WHAT'S KEEPING FUTURE LEADERS FROM RUNNING?

While low voter turnout has become a growing political concern in elections nationwide, South Hampton Roads residents this fall will face a different phenomenon: low candidate turnout.

Of 14 incumbents in South Hampton Roads seeking re-election to the Virginia House of Delegates, only two face challenges in November.

And of 20 constitutional office seats - for sheriff, city treasurer, commonwealth's attorney and commissioner of revenue - in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk, only five will be contested at the polls.

Ultimately, voters may be the losers.

``It's just not a good situation for democracy,'' said James R. Sweeney, an associate professor of history at Old Dominion University. ``If this goes on over several elections, you have people in elected office who develop a certain sense of entitlement to the office, and they can become detached from the electorate. It's not healthy.''

Political observers say the region's shortage of candidates appears to reflect a statewide trend.

Two hotly contested statewide races - for governor and for attorney general - seem to be drawing most of the attention and money.

Some say the pitched partisan battle for control of the General Assembly in 1995 - when all 140 seats were up for election - may have drained resources from local races this year.

``My sense is that there is almost a palpable sense of exhaustion for both financial donors and for volunteers,'' said Virginia Beach attorney Kenneth V. Geroe, Democratic chairman of the 2nd Congressional District.

None of Virginia Beach's five Republican incumbents in the House of Delegates is being challenged. Neither is the single Democrat.

``Among people I talk to, there's more of a sentiment to catch our breath, work hard for the statewide ticket and then take a closer look at 1999,'' Geroe said Friday.

IN SOUTH HAMPTON ROADS in 1995, nine state House incumbents and seven of eight incumbent senators in the General Assembly faced competition in the general election. Statewide, candidates spent upwards of $20 million - more than twice as much as in 1991, the last time all seats were up for re-election.

In the most expensive local race, the 7th Senate District in Virginia Beach, GOP challenger Edward L. Schrock and veteran Democrat Clarence A. Holland dropped more than $500,000 between them. Schrock won.

Said J.P. Godsey, chairman of Virginia Beach's Republican Party: ``We worked awful hard to raise money for those guys (unchallenged Beach GOP incumbents), and now we can devote our money toward the statewide ticket. Plus we want to help (GOP candidates) in our neighboring cities.''

Stephanie Stetson, executive director of the Community Networking Association, a Virginia Beach group that promotes civic activism, said the need to raise big bucks turns off many people who might be inclined to run.

``You can't help but feel like you owe people favors, and it's real hard to keep your ethics pure,'' said Stetson. That's one reason so many citizens favor campaign finance reform to put a cap on donations, she added.

With campaigns these days relying less on party activists and more on paid television and other media advertising to get their message across, the price to become a credible candidate is much higher, said E. Del Carlson, a political science professor at Virginia Wesleyan. And that may give people pause when considering a run against an entrenched incumbent.

``You used to be able to depend on party workers to get into competition, but increasingly it's the air war rather than the ground war,'' Carlson said. ``If you believe in a healthy, two-party system, you want to have a fair degree of competition. . . . The system, as it has developed, now in a way offers fewer choices for folks, so in my view that's not a very healthy tendency.''

Both state House incumbents being challenged in November are from Norfolk - veteran Democrat Thomas W. Moss, who is House speaker, and first-term Republican Thelma Drake.

William Nusbaum, chairman of Norfolk's Democratic Party, said challenges to incumbents as powerfully entrenched as Moss in a heavily Democratic district is tilting at windmills.

``You do it either for the sake of tying up an opponent so he can't be out helping other candidates in his party, or you hope some unexpected bolt out of the blue will strike,'' Nusbaum said. ``You have some districts where candidates are either so popular or districts so tilted in terms of political makeup that folks recognize it's suicidal to mount a campaign.''

Geroe said Virginia Beach Democrats were reluctant to run candidates against the GOP state House incumbents because they had expected Republican Beach Sen. Ken Stolle to win the primary race for attorney general. That would have meant a strong GOP turnout there in the fall.

``It turned out to be flawed reasoning,'' Geroe said, because Chesapeake's Mark Earley won.

THE THREE LOCAL General Assembly races attracting the most interest are those in which incumbents aren't running: the Norfolk seat George Heilig is vacating because of failing eyesight; the Portsmouth seat opened after Billy Moore became a judge; and the Suffolk/Chesapeake seat that Robert Nelms is giving up for personal reasons.

J. Randy Forbes, Virginia's Republican Party chairman and an unopposed incumbent state House delegate from Chesapeake, said both Democrats and the GOP have had difficulty fielding candidates this year.

He said he hears many reasons that don't include money.

``It runs the gamut, from `My wife or husband doesn't want me involved in politics' to `I can't take time off from my business,' '' Forbes said. ``There's also a reluctance to put their personal life out there on display.''

George Wadsworth Jr., president of the Council of Civic Organizations of Virginia Beach, said there may be a simple reason why more people aren't running: Most people are satisfied. A new statewide Virginia Tech poll indicates that only one-third of Virginians think the state legislature is doing a ``poor'' or ``fair'' job.

``I think most people think they're doing a reasonably good job,'' Wadsworth said. ``You find voters who are satisfied with what's being done up there as a whole.''

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