Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990 TAG: 9005090302
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Fisher, a 76-year-old economist who represented the 10th Congressional District in Northern Virginia from 1975 to 1981, at this point would need the votes of two-thirds of the members of the state party's central committee to be nominated.
Some members of the committee, especially some from Northern Virginia, have expressed dismay over the party hierarchy's willingness to let Republican Sen. John Warner run unopposed for a third term.
Gov. Douglas Wilder said in January that he did not think the party should field a candidate against Warner unless it had a candidate with a solid chance of defeating the popular incumbent.
Earlier this year, Democratic Party Chairman Paul Goldman appointed a search committee to seek out potential candidates but found no one willing to run. No one, that is, except Nancy Spannaus, a follower of Lyndon LaRouche, who is considered a political extremist by many.
To make sure Spannaus could not get the nomination, the central committee adopted candidate-selection rules that successfully shut her out in a series of party caucuses two weeks ago. At those caucuses, Democrats voted overwhelmingly in favor of having no Senate candidate this year.
The party's rules, however, leave open the possibility that the committee could still nominate someone by June 9. Goldman announced Tuesday that he has set a meeting of the central committee at 11 a.m. that day at the Marriott Hotel here.
Though the purpose of the meeting will be to approve a unified budget for the state party's fiscal year that begins July 1, Goldman said, "If there are any other matters the central committee needs to consider, we will be there to consider them."
Among the budget matters to be discussed is a financial initiative proposed by Goldman to give the state party an unprecedented capability to get involved in the 1991 redistricting of legislative and congressional district lines. Under the proposal, Goldman said, the party would have "the hardware and the software" and the population data "to draw our own lines. No party has been able to do that before."
Goldman had no comment concerning Fisher's potential Senate candidacy.
Fisher said Tuesday that he had previously discussed the possibility of opposing Warner with both Goldman and Wilder. "I wouldn't say I had great encouragement," but he also said he was not urged to give up on the idea.
"I'm actively interested," Fisher said, adding that he has received "a lot of encouragement" from other Democrats.
Fisher said he agrees with those who feel it is wrong for the party to let Warner have a free ride. "I wouldn't run just for that reason; I would run to win."
But at the same time he said a major political party has an obligation to itself and to the two-party system "to contest every major election."
Fisher, who served as former Gov. Charles Robb's secretary of human resources, is now special assistant to the president of George Mason University.
by CNB