Thursday, May 08, 2008
It's unclear if Bowers can walk the walk
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
Shanna Flowers
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The sixth time was the charm for David Bowers.
After defeats in his last five political outings, the former Roanoke mayor and councilman captured the mayor's office in this week's municipal election.
Once considered the Bill Clinton of Roanoke's black community, Bowers became 2008's Comeback Kid on Tuesday night.
Bowers seized on sources of residents' discontent and exploited those to victory.
He rallied to the side of firefighters disgruntled over budget cuts, Forest Park Elementary parents unhappy about the pending closure of the school and dismayed Mill Mountain advocates who are fighting a proposal for a restaurant in the park.
He also pledged to oppose an amphitheater on the old Victory Stadium site.
Candidate Bowers made a slew of promises. But can Mayor Bowers deliver?
"The people have decided that they are back in charge at city hall," Bowers proclaimed Tuesday night after trouncing incumbent Mayor Nelson Harris, 53 to 40 percent.
Bowers' words this week are eerily similar to his pledge 16 years ago in his first mayoral race in 1992, when he promised to "take back city hall for the people."
Yet a few short years after uttering those words, many of the people who had backed Bowers -- blacks, teachers and union leaders -- told the mayor they felt betrayed.
Bowers had not pushed for a referendum on a ward system, although he had promised to work toward it since his days as a council member.
City teachers' salaries still trailed teachers' salaries in Roanoke County and Salem, despite years of assurances from Bowers that he would work for equal pay. At one point, instead of urging that the city council spend more to increase city teachers' salaries, he asked the county to hold down a proposed raise for its teachers.
Despite Bowers' campaign promise to urge union jobs on the $42 million Hotel Roanoke renovation, not one union member ever wielded a hammer in the project.
Those supporters confronted Bowers prior to his 1996 re-election bid.
"He said, 'You guys just seem to be very critical of me,'" Billy Bova, a former union leader who worked in Bowers' 1992 mayoral campaign, told The Roanoke Times in 1996.
"He seemed to be offended by it and was somewhat combative and defensive. He seemed to be taken aback and said he had no idea people were that disenchanted with his performance."
As mayor and the city's highest elected Democrat, Bowers was at best feeble in building a consensus on a majority Democratic council, or even in rounding up three other reliable votes.
He often couldn't prevail on tough issues because other council members didn't trust him.
And he was infamous for stomping out of meetings when others wouldn't go along.
Say what you will about Harris, but he knows how to count to four and his council colleagues seem to trust him. Has Harris ever had to abruptly leave a meeting to regain his composure?
So as the euphoria over Bowers' resurrected political career dies down, now might be a good time for a reality check of what he can really deliver.
- Will Bowers be able to round up a reliable majority on the next council?
- Just what is the mayor-elect's plan for keeping Forest Park open? He has no say on next year's budget, and no say in upcoming school board appointments.
- How will the longtime Democratic loyalist-turned-independent hold influence over a council dominated by a party he abandoned when it wouldn't anoint him leader?
- How will he derail an amphitheater process he has loudly opposed?
- What will he do to stop a restaurant from going on Mill Mountain?
- Can he get any funding in next year's budget restored to the fire department?
The answers to these questions will tell us whether there indeed is a new sheriff "of the people" in town, or whether merely the circus and its ring leader have returned.
Get your popcorn, grab your seat and stay tuned.
Shanna Flowers' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
