Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993 TAG: 9303230198
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
ALLEN'S WON THE GOP? RIVALS THINK NOT
Republican gubernatorial hopeful George F. Allen laid claim to his party's nomination Monday at a news conference that became a spin-doctoring free-for-all among campaign spokesmen and aides.Coming a week before the end of the Republicans' new, streamlined system for selecting delegates - a process that was supposed to produce a clear nominee by now and reduce intraparty fighting - Monday's scene proved that neither of those goals has been reached. Indeed, because none of the delegates to the June convention are legally bound to vote the way they now say they will, firm totals for any candidate are impossible to get.
Both of Allen's rivals for the nomination acknowledged Allen is ahead, but charged he cooked his numbers to demoralize their supporters.
Allen, a former congressman from Charlottesville, said he has 56 percent of the 8,100 delegate votes to the convention. He called on his competitors, Northern Virginia businessman Earle Williams and Del. Clinton Miller of Shenandoah to quit and join him in focusing on their certain opponent, Democrat Mary Sue Terry.
But the Williams and Miller camps would have none of it.
"There are going to be plenty of people who change their minds" before the convention, said Dennis Peterson, Miller's campaign manager. "The idea here is to discourage the opposition and hoodwink delegates who are not with him into supporting him."
Williams campaign spokesman Steve Haner was more direct. "How many times do I have to catch them lying before you guys believe us," he asked reporters.
Haner and Allen campaign spokesman Jay Timmons conducted a running argument in front of reporters over who has the most delegates in specific localities. They also squabbled over Haner's claim that a campaign with the nomination in hand would not bother to challenge some Fairfax County delegates, as Allen has done.
Vic Gresham, a top aide to Williams, said his campaign puts Allen's support at 39 percent of the delegates, vs. 32 percent for his man.
But Allen maintained his count is conservative. He said the other candidates should read "the writing on the wall" and give up.
Allen's workers have polled delegates locality-by-locality after they've been chosen to identify supporters. In each case, the campaign assumed delegates it recruited are Allen backers and polled the remainder.
The Williams camp has challenged Allen's numbers. The most recent squabble is over who won the majority of delegates in Norfolk, from delegate lists filed Saturday.
Keywords:
POLITICS