Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993 TAG: 9311030189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Beyer won a closer-than-expected victory over political neophyte and Republican Mike Farris.
He will continue to preside over a 40-member state Senate that is almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.
With 79 percent of the vote in, Beyer had 718,465 votes, or 54 percent, to 602,049, or 46 percent, for Farris.
Beyer rolled up substantial margins in the heavily populated urban crescent stretching from Northern Virginia to Virginia Beach. Farris was winning in the rural areas outside the crescent.
The Beyer-Farris race drew national media attention because it was largely viewed as a political test of strength of the religious right.
Farris, an evangelical Christian who entered public life in 1980 as president of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in Washington state, had the financial and personal support of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who directly pumped $10,000 into his campaign.
A Northern Virginia lawyer and home-school advocate, Farris cashed in on a network of home schoolers, many of whom were first-time political activists. They turned out in droves to deliver him the Republican nomination in June. Several thousand also sent small contributions - $100 or less - to his campaign, giving him a war chest of more than $1 million to battle Beyer.
Beyer, a Northern Virginia car dealership owner, raised $1.6 million for the campaign. He spent most of his money on television ads hammering Farris' links to Robertson, Falwell and the religious right.
Political analysts said the negative ads worked for Beyer, rather than backfired, as Farris' popularity in the polls dropped.
Farris accused Beyer of religious bigotry.
Farris' efforts also may have been hampered by two events early in the campaign. In late September, U.S. Sen. John Warner, Virginia's only statewide Republican officeholder, was lukewarm about the GOP ticket. Warner hemmed and hawed in response to a reporter's question about whether he would vote for Farris.
"Come see me the day before the election," Warner finally told the television interviewer.
In early October, a group of prominent Republicans led by Virginia R. "Jinks" Holton, wife of former Gov. Linwood Holton, held a Capitol news conference endorsing Beyer.
They said Beyer had more in common with mainstream Republicans than did Farris. Holton said she resented a small group of "extremists" trying to use the Republican Party "as a vehicle to impose their views."
Few voters focused early on the attorney general's race, which turned into a referendum on crime.
Gilmore, Henrico County's commonwealth's attorney, handily beat Democrat Bill Dolan, largely running on his record as a prosecutor and calling for the abolition of parole.
With 78 percent of the vote in, Gilmore had 731,894 votes, or 56 percent. Dolan had 572,565 votes, or 44 percent.
Early returns showed Gilmore running up 2-1 margins in the Richmond suburbs, which were expected to be his stronghold. Dolan, in contrast, was getting only about 55 percent of the vote in Northern Virginia, his base.
Dolan, a trial lawyer and former president of the Virginia State Bar, sought unsuccessfully to tell voters that the majority of the attorney general's time is spent writing legal opinions, protecting consumers and representing more than 200 state agencies, not on locking up criminals.
Gilmore also kept clubbing Dolan about the legal fees he charged the state for prosecuting a former Norfolk judge on a forgery charge.
Dolan was appointed by Norfolk Circuit Court judges to prosecute former District Judge Joseph Campbell, who was accused of ordering a clerk to change court records to hide from the public the arrest of then-Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Sciortino.
Keywords:
ELECTION
by CNB