Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
GOP LEADER JOE ELTON RESIGNING
Joe Elton, executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, is resigning this month to pursue other political and business interests, the state party announced Tuesday.Elton, 42, has been on the state GOP staff since 1985 and became executive director in July 1986. He probably is best known publicly for his efforts to raise money to help pay for a private investigator's probe of U.S. Sen. Charles Robb's private life in the late '80s.
Elton said he is looking at job offers in Richmond, Washington, New York and Ohio, where he worked in Republican politics before coming to Richmond.
"I've had on the back burner for a long time the goal and pressure to try and get out and make more money and do something that in the main will be a little less burdensome," Elton said.
Elton said he'll leave the $69,000 annual post on March 15.
Patrick McSweeney, state GOP chairman, praised Elton in a prepared statement and said he plans to fill the job quickly. McSweeney and Elton have been reported at odds on various subjects since the Richmond lawyer became party chairman last summer.
Elton's departure comes as the GOP is preparing for November elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and all 100 House of Delegates seats. Republicans hope to break a 12-year losing streak for the three top jobs.
Meanwhile, state Democratic leaders plan to meet March 20 to select a first vice chairman to replace Jessie Rattley, who was ousted for running as an independent in a state Senate election in Newport News in December.
State party Chairman Paul Goldman said he will also ask the steering committee to eliminate a requirement that the first vice chairman be the opposite sex of the party chairman.
"It's an archaic provision," he said.
Goldman said that did not mean he had a man in mind for the job. Two men, state Education Secretary James Dyke and Mark Warner, a businessman and sometimes fund-raiser for Gov. Douglas Wilder, are said to be interested in the post.
In interviews this week, several members of the Democrats' state steering committee have said they prefer to leave the vice chairmanship unfilled until the party's state convention in May. That's when Goldman's term as chairman expires.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.