Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050541
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Take a Republican convention hall swarming with delegates who haven't made up their minds yet, and the tone of the opening round Friday was probably as inevitable as it was ugly:
Both candidates for attorney general, waging the most closely fought and least-noticed race of all, showered delegates with literature calling each other liars.
No wonder Phillip Reynolds was so confused.
This is the first time the Prince William County building contractor has been to a political convention, and he wants to be conscientious about how he votes. Yet less than 24 hours before the balloting begins at the Republicans' state convention, he still wasn't sure who to support - or even who to believe - in the tight race for attorney general.
For the past few weeks, his mailbox has been jammed with solicitations from Salem Del. Steven Agee and Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Gilmore. But Reynolds hasn't been too pleased with what he's received. "I'd rather hear more about their programs than perjorative distortions of each other's record," Reynolds said.
What he saw Friday might not help him much.
Deep in the concrete bosom of the Richmond Coliseum, in trailers bristling with computers and photocopiers and notebooks stuffed with research on the other guy, both the Agee and Gilmore campaign staffs spent the day churning out instant "convention updates" aimed at grabbing delegates' attention.
"How Steve Agee Scrambles the Truth."
"The 9 Lies of Jim Gilmore."
"Why isn't George Allen in Congress? Because Steve Agee went A.W.O.L. The Democratic gerrymandering that re-drew congressional districts to force George Allen out of his seat passed by only one vote: 42-41. Steve Agee was absent. He simply did not bother to show up."
"Why isn't Jim Gilmore telling the truth about Steve Agee's vote on the redistricting plan? Because it suits his purpose to lie about Steve Agee's record."
Most of the fliers dealt with fairly arcane matters, from procedural votes in the General Assembly to typographical errors on the other candidates' literature. But in the highly charged atmosphere of a political convention, the technicalities didn't seem to matter nearly so much as the damning headlines.
Agee campaign staffers - who seemed to be on the receiving end of the harshest attacks - sighed at the barrage of brochures. "It'll matter in this convention more than ever before," said Floyd County Republican Chairman Chris Nolen. "That's because this is the first time the Farris people have been to a convention. They've never been through this before."
The Farris People - that's the convention shorthand for the estimated 4,000 delegates, a third of the total, who have shown up primarily to support Loudoun County lawyer Mike Farris for lieutenant governor. They tend to be people like Reynolds: political newcomers, deeply conservative, intensely religious, and very much undecided on whom to back in the attorney general's contest.
They also may determine the outcome.
Friday, Agee positioned himself outside the door to the convention's registration room, the most strategic location to shake as many hands as possible.
But the key to the attorney general's race may be how he - and Gilmore - position themselves today, when they get their chance to speak to the delegates.
If one thing was clear from conversations with Farris delegates Friday, it's that many of them haven't heard either candidate for attorney general speak in detail about the kinds of issues they're interested in. Furthermore, the Farris delegates may not be especially interested in the kind of lawyerly details that Agee and Gilmore spent much of Friday battling over.
Take Reynolds, the Prince William contractor.
"I'd like to hear them talk about freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, because I see the tendency of the national attorney general, despite Supreme Court rulings, to attack abortion protesters," he said. "I'd like to see our state attorney general come out strong for free speech rights."
Abortion was a constant theme among the delegates for Farris, the only Republican candidate running on an explicitly anti-abortion platform.
"We want to hear them say they're concerned that the state of Virginia has 34,000 unborn babies killed a year," said David Lytle of Campbell County. "We're expecting them to build a moral climate."
The national debate over gay rights was also prominently mentioned by Farris delegates. Victor Ludlum, a grain buyer for a poultry firm from Augusta County, said he was waiting to hear what Agee and Gilmore would say about their concern for "traditional family values."
"We've changed the word," he said, incredulously. "It used to be `pervert,' then it moved to `homosexual' and now it's moved to `gay,' which has ruined a perfectly good word. I think perverts need to be classified as the 2 to 4 percent of society they are and not given any special civil rights."
Agee and Gilmore hold similar positions on abortion; both generally would permit abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy but restrict them afterwards. But neither has tried to base his campaign on social issues, and it's unclear how far they'll go today to address the concerns of a convention heavily weighted toward their party's right wing.
Until then, the two campaigns will be pumping out more fliers to press into the hands of uncommitted delegates.
For better or worse, many of the delegates seemed to welcome the crush of paperwork. Dock Hoilman, an electrical engineer from Stafford County, collected a thick stack of fliers Friday and found a quiet spot to read over some of them. "I've taken all the mailings I got at home and divided them into stacks and read through them all," he said. Now he planned to do the same at the convention.
"I'm leaning to Steve Agee, but I was concerned about some of the things said about him. But now I've just picked up this" - he waved Agee's flier on "The 9 Lies of Jim Gilmore" - "and that may answer them."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB