Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994                   TAG: 9411090113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TYSON'S CORNER                                  LENGTH: Medium

LACK OF MONEY, HARD-CORE FOLLOWERS DOES COLEMAN IN

His longshot independent campaign for the U.S. Senate was crushed at the polls, but a smiling Coleman insisted he had no regrets.

"Believe me, we did the right thing," he said. "We acted and voted our consciences. And every vote we received was a vote against politics as usual and for renewed pride in our state and our government."

Conceding defeat around 8:45, Coleman declined to second-guess his campaign or analyze Sen. Charles Robb's victory. "There are a lot of things I should've done," was all Coleman would say.

Campaign manager Anson Franklin said a lack of money was at the heart of Coleman's poor showing. "If we'd had $2million [Coleman's initial budget],'' Franklin said, ``we could've been a lot more competitive." Coleman ended up raising about $800,000, and $300,000 of that from his own pocket.

Predictions that Coleman, a former state attorney general, would throw the election to North by holding down Robb's vote did not come true. But Coleman's hope that publicity over Robb's and North's characters would drive the electorate his way also went unrealized.

Coleman's weak showing underlined the continuing value of major party labels, even in a contest with vulnerable party nominees and amid polls showing growth in the number of voters who consider themselves independent.

"His name was not Byrd, it was not Howell," said James Latimer of Richmond, the retired dean of Virginia political reporters, referring to former U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. and former Lt. Gov. Henry Howell.

Those Virginians ran successful independent campaigns on the right and left, respectively, in the 1970s. Unlike them, however, Coleman "did not have a hard-core following," Latimer said.

Coleman also lacked the statewide organization and money "that can sustain even a scandal-drenched candidate," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

Paul Goldman, a former confidant to ex-Gov. Douglas Wilder, argued that Coleman should have attacked Robb at the outset of the campaign and tried to position himself as the only acceptable alternative to North. The electorate essentially was split between those who loved North and those who couldn't abide him, Goldman said; Coleman's only viable strategy was to make himself - not Robb - seen as the man best able to defeat North.

Despite Coleman's failure, Sabato and Bill Wood, head of the UVa-based Virginia Institute for Political Leadership, argued that continuing voter dissatisfaction with the major parties is likely to foster additional independent candidacies.

Keywords:
ELECTION