Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190209
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In a letter sent to about 500 GOP leaders, former Attorney General Marshall Coleman, former U.S. Sen. Paul Trible and former Del. Wyatt Durrette said it is time for Republicans to "all be on the same side again and start fighting with the Democrats" rather than fighting among themselves.
Coleman, Trible and Durrette have formed an organization called "Virginia Republicans United," and said they will be working together to recruit strong Republican candidates for public office at all levels.
They harshly criticized Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder for ignoring the state's needs while he pursues a national agenda. But they said Republicans can take advantage of the situation if the various factions within their party will stop bickering.
The three - all of whom have lost bids for governor in recent years - said, "Many of the unsuccessful campaigns we have experienced in recent years came about because Republicans were not united. We cannot let that happen to Republican candidates again."
Coleman, Trible and Durrette said in interviews they have no plans to run for governor in 1993.
Their letter said that the 1991 reapportionment of legislative and congressional districts will give the GOP an opportunity in the next few years to capture a majority in at least one House of the General Assembly and a majority in Virginia's congressional delegation.
Moreover, they said Virginia Democrats are "mired in controversy, in rivalry among their top leaders, and in a growing fiscal mess of their own making."
Wilder's "New Mainstream is little more than the same Old Smoke Screen," they said. "The issues - from a strong defense and fiscal restraint, to reform in education and waging a real war on drugs are with us."
Wilder, who narrowly defeated Coleman last year, pledged to be a governor for all Virginians, "but a funny thing happened on the way to Richmond," the letter said. "His attention and his efforts turned away from Virginia's needs - to the glitter of the national arena. During the most important six months of this administration, Governor Wilder's only major initiative has been to promote himself and his presidential ambitions by crisscrossing the country giving speeches. Virginians are beginning to feel they've been used by their absentee governor. And they're right."
Wilder's press secretary, Laura Dillard, dismissed the Republicans' comments as "partisan politics. We're busy attending to other matters," so she said there would be no other comment on it.
Paul Goldman, chairman of the state Democratic party, said he found it laughable that the GOP threesome would be talking about a fiscal mess of the Democrats' making when "the Republican party has this country teetering on the brink of a fiscal debacle" in Washington.
But Goldman said he was not surprised at the partisan broadside coming "from a Republican Party which, when it comes to attacks and fighting, has no peer. The fact is Marshall Coleman and his friends just love to talk. But the people have rejected what they had to say three times in the 1980s."
Goldman called the trio "the three Republican Musketeers" and said they "are now claiming to be campaigning in a uniform they have never worn before in their political lives."
The Coleman-Trible-Durrette effort was endorsed by state Chairman Don Huffman of Roanoke.
"Virginia Republicans realize that we have nominated some first-rate people but have failed to elect them because we exhausted ourselves, our resources and our good will in fights over our own party's nomination. I think we have outgrown the infighting and are ready to move forward to some major gains and victories in the 1990s," Huffman said.
The unity move was also endorsed by Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Richmond. "These three men have strong personal followings that together encompass the vast majority of rank-and-file Republicans in Virginia. I think the grass-roots people will say, `You know, they have a point. It's about time we trained our sights on the Democrats instead of each other,' " Bliley said.
Coleman, Trible and Durrette said they will host a hospitality suite at the state GOP's annual Dalton Tribute Weekend in Williamsburg on July 28 and will be announcing unity activities later.
Coleman and Durrette clashed bitterly at the 1977 state GOP convention, where Coleman narrowly won the nomination for attorney general. In 1981, they were running mates - with Coleman making his first unsuccessful bid for governor and Durrette running unsuccessfully for attorney general. In 1985, they clashed again when Durrette was nominated for governor and forces aligned with him to reject Coleman's bid for the lieutenant governor's spot on the ticket.
by CNB