Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110264
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
GOVERNOR'S RACE ALL THAT INTERESTS GOP'S MILLER
Clinton Miller, a veteran Republican state delegate and candidate for his party's nomination for governor, said he is not interested in any other spot on the statewide ballot this fall.The Republican Party already has good candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general, Miller said in an interview Wednesday.
"No, I'm running for governor," said Miller, who has represented the northern Shenandoah Valley in the General Assembly for 22 years.
Miller, 53, has been traveling the state like a March wind, in gusts and whirls. He was in the New River Valley this week.
Tied up in the legislature in January and February, Miller, a Woodstock lawyer, is racing to catch up with his two opponents for the GOP nomination in the courtship of state convention delegates.
There's no arguing that Northern Virginia businessman Earle Williams and former 7th District Rep. George Allen Jr. have more delegates aligned with their camp, Miller said. But state Republicans haven't decided yet who can win the governor's mansion back from the Democrats, who have held it for 12 years, he said.
"They want to win in November," Miller said of his fellow Republicans. Miller's job is to prove he is the candidate with the best chance of winning this fall.
He makes an attractive candidate, tall, sandy-haired and soft-spoken. He plays a hot rock-a-billy guitar and years ago had a song, "Bertha Lou," on the Billboard charts.
Miller has April and May to persuade enough delegates to back his candidacy.
"That's an eternity in politics," he said.
So far, the Republican gubernatorial campaign has not generated the kind of excitement that the party needs if it expects to win this fall, Miller said.
"There's no magic in the campaign."
He will show people that he can run an energetic and innovative kind of Republican campaign, Miller said. He doubts that Republican regulars going into the June convention will turn their backs on someone who has captured the popular imagination.
Miller said he is running on his proven record of leadership in the General Assembly and his efforts to open the governmental process to all Virginians.
Among those efforts, he cited his work to require recorded votes in legislative committees and for the creation of single-member legislative districts.
Miller said he is concerned about the state debt, which has grown in recent years to $8.5 billion. That debt looms large, he said, in the shadow of $1 billion in capital needs facing the state, a possible $500 million payoff in an income-tax lawsuit brought by federal retirees, and the need to resolve the disparity between richer and poorer school districts.
His legislative experience sets him apart from Williams, who has none, Miller said. A governor who can't work with the General Assembly will be a failure, he said.
Although Allen did serve in the state legislature, he was never able to get any significant piece of legislation passed, Miller said.
Keywords:
POLITICS