CLINTON MILLER CAMP SAYS CAMPAIGN LONG WAY FROM OVER

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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993                   TAG: 9304080278
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON MILLER CAMP SAYS CAMPAIGN LONG WAY FROM OVER
The Republican gubernatorial nomination remains open and will take several ballots to decide at the party's June convention, one of the candidates, Del. Clinton Miller of Shenandoah, asserted Wednesday.
Contradicting claims by front-runner George Allen of Charlottesville, who said last month he has the nomination in hand, Miller said Allen has less than 45 percent of the delegates to the convention.
At a Capitol news conference where he received the endorsement of half a dozen other GOP legislators, Miller said his campaign is polling a sample of the 14,000 people signed up to attend the convention June 4 and 5.
"While one candidate claims the campaign is over, we are completely satisfied he is in error," Miller said.
Miller said he has the backing of 11 percent of the delegates and is the second choice of more than half those delegates who plan to support one of his rivals on the first ballot.
"It's intersesting that Mr. Miller did not release any results of his poll, other than to say he has more than 11 percent," said Jay Timmons a spokesman for Allen.
"We show him at 1.1 percent. That's a long stretch. He says he is the second choice of the delegates by a 2-1 margin. Well, we're the first choice of the delegates by a 2-1 margin."
Timmons said the Allen campaign believes it has 59 percent of the delegate votes, with all but 12 percent polled.
Dennis Peterson, Miller's campaign manager, said his man's mail-in delegate poll shows Miller with about 12 percent support, Allen in the low 40s, and the third candidate, Earle C. Williams of McLean, backed by just under 30 percent of the delegates.
About 25 percent of those filed as delegates have not made a decision, Peterson said.
Peterson said the campaign has heard from only a fraction of the delegates and described the results so far as trends.
Because the Republicans do not bind delegates to vote for any particular candidate, a hard count of the strength of each candidate is impossible.
Also, actual attendance at the convention is expected to be less than the 14,000 people who signed up to be delegates.
Keywords:
POLITICS

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB