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

DATE: MONDAY, November 29, 1993                   TAG: 9311290056
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

WILDER, ROBB LACK SUPPORT SURVEY FINDS PARTY LEADERS FEAR THE WORST

A survey of Democratic Party chairmen across Virginia found only 37 percent of those surveyed favored re-electing U.S. Sen. Charles Robb, while just 10 percent said Gov. Douglas Wilder should run for the seat, according to The Daily Progress.

Of the 146 local and district chairmen statewide, 104 local chairmen and six congressional district chairmen responded to the Charlottesville newspaper's telephone survey from Nov. 22 through Friday. All of them answered anonymously, with the understanding that their names and the localities in which they serve as chairmen would not be mentioned.

"The two leading candidates, Robb and Wilder, have done so much damage to themselves, I'm afraid we're going to get trounced - and to get trounced by Oliver North is to be doubly trounced," said one party chairman from the eastern half of the state.

North, a former Marine lieutenant colonel whose conviction for his role in the arms-for-hostages Iran-Contra deal was overturned, has announced he will campaign for the Republican nomination.

"Robb is tainted and dirty," said a chairman from the eastern half of the state who also said that Wilder "has got a lot of bad baggage."

"The Democratic Party needs a new beginning," said a chairwoman from the state's eastern half. "They need to take a hook and take these rowdies off the stage."

About half of the 110 chairmen said they were undecided about who the party should nominate for Robb's seat or that they favor some candidate other than Robb and Wilder.

Four party chairmen, or 3.6 percent, said they favored Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute for Robb's seat. Thirty chairmen asked to be listed in an undecided category instead of for Robb, Wilder, Clute or some other candidate.

Others mentioned for the nomination were 5th District Rep. L.F. Payne, 4th District Rep. Norman Sisisky, state Democratic Party Chairman Mark Warner and former Gov. Gerald Baliles. Fifteen of the 24 chairmen who said they favor some other candidate named Baliles as a top choice. Baliles was also brought up by a dozen other chairmen who said they would support him if he would enter the race, including three chairmen who favor Robb.

"I like Norman Sisisky, Jerry Baliles, Tom Moss, Dickie Cranwell and Richard Holland," said one Southside Virginia chairman who listed himself as undecided between Robb and Wilder. Moss, of Norfolk, is speaker of the House of Delegates; Cranwell, from Vinton, is House majority leader; and Holland is a veteran legislator from Windsor.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB