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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991                   TAG: 9102270543
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

OLD CHARGES SURFACE LATE IN MARTINEZ HEARINGS

It seemed for a while that former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez would get through his Senate hearings to become the nation's drug-policy leader without any reference to old allegations of bribery and perjury.

But Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., raised the matter late Tuesday, long after most spectators and reporters had left the hearing room. He allowed Martinez, who was under oath, to put his denials of any wrongdoing on the record, and Martinez did so.

The hearing already had covered such matters as Martinez's drug-fighting record in Florida.

Democratic members of the committee criticized that record as placing too much emphasis and money on law-enforcement crackdowns to the detriment of drug treatment and prevention efforts.

Martinez had defended numerous drug-treatment programs initiated in Florida. Asked whether he supports "treatment on demand," the nominee said, "Everyone that wants treatment ought to have it."

The former teacher also stressed his commitment to education, the kind that occurs in the classroom as well as the kind that occurs in the home and in youth organizations.

Democratic committee members and one Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, urged Martinez repeatedly to move the current budget breakdown - 71 percent for law enforcement and international measures, 29 percent for treatment and education - toward a 50-50 split. Martinez responded to each senator but never gave a direct answer.

Martinez, denying the contention of several Democrats that he was nominated by President Bush because he was an out-of-work Republican who needed a job, pointed to years of work fighting drugs in a state whose geographical location has given it a history of drug problems.

Martinez said he accepted the invitation to become director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy not "for the purpose of earning a living. I'm here because I believe in this very deeply."

Pressured by several Democratic senators to divorce himself from partisan politics if he gets the drug job, Martinez said, "I will never mix politics with this office."

However, he said he would campaign for Bush's re-election if the president sought his help, and that was enough to endanger the vote of at least one senator, Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill.

As for the old allegations of bribery and perjury, Biden said he had checked the FBI report on them and had had his own staff investigate them. The senator assured Martinez before the nominee testified on the matter that he found the allegations "not of sufficient substance" to keep him from winning confirmation to the post.

The allegations rebutted by Martinez, who was under oath, concerned 1987 accusations by then-U.S. Attorney Robert Merkle during a cable television operator's mail-fraud trial.

The prosecutor contended Martinez took a bribe during his 1979 campaign for mayor of Tampa, Fla., intended to help the operator win the Tampa cable contract. Martinez denied the charges. Merkle said Martinez lied on the stand, but he never brought perjury charges.

by CNB