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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990                   TAG: 9003162816
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LAROUCHE FOLLOWER FILES

RICHMOND - Defying the state Democratic Party's efforts to block her candidacy, Lyndon LaRouche disciple Nancy Spannaus paid the required $1,968 filing fee Thursday and declared she will seek the Democrats' nomination for the U.S. Senate.

The party's central committee, meeting Feb. 10, agreed to give incumbent Republican Sen. John Warner a free ride after Gov. Douglas Wilder signaled that the Democrats shouldn't bother to field an opponent unless they could find one with a viable chance of winning.

But worried that they might get saddled with Spannaus - who calls herself a LaRouche Democrat - the central committee also specifically designed rules to prevent her or another fringe group candidate from running under the party's banner.

"I've decided to challenge this situation in the Democratic Party," Spannaus told reporters who followed her into the state party headquarters and watched her pay the filing fee Thursday.

But she conceded that the odds are stacked against her being able to get the Democratic nomination and said, "If I'm forced to, I'll run as an independent."

Spannaus was the only candidate to declare under the Democrats' 5 p.m. deadline Thursday and her declaration means that city and county party caucuses will have to be held April 21 and 23 to select 1,750 delegates to a state convention that likely never will be.

Under the party's rules, Spannaus would have to get 20 percent, or about 350 convention delegates, committed to supporting her at a convention. She said Thursday she has fewer than 100.

Even if she could get 20 percent, the party still could deny her the nomination if 51 percent of those eligible to attend a convention prefile a preference that no candidate be nominated.

That would mean the convention, set for June 9 in Richmond, would automatically be canceled. Then, the only way Spannaus or anyone else could get the nomination would be through a two-thirds vote of the central committee at a meeting on June 12 - and that is highly unlikely.

Spannaus "is not a Democrat," said Paul Goldman, Wilder's political strategist and hand-picked chairman of the state party. "She doesn't believe in the principles of our party; she didn't back our '89 candidates"; and she and other LaRouche followers have harshly attacked Attorney General Mary Sue Terry.

"She just wants to wreak havoc on the process," Goldman added. But "it's now in the hands of the public. She has to compete like anyone else, she has to elect delegates at these caucuses like anyone else."

Spannaus' $1,968 filing fee will not be refunded if she is unsuccessful.

Goldman also defended anew his unsuccessful effort to locate a Democrat who might be willing to oppose Warner. He set up a search committee and gave anyone interested the opportunity to step forward and none did, he said. "I think we made an unprecedented effort."

by CNB