Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 2, 1993 TAG: 9312020094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BY ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
State GOP spokesman Richard Jefferson, who started work under McSweeney last spring, resigned a day after Gov.-elect George Allen demanded McSweeney's resignation and McSweeney declined.
"I feel very strongly that I must be able to publicly support Gov.-elect Allen and you, as party chairman," Jefferson wrote in letter to McSweeney. "Any other approach to party unity would be double-minded, and it would not help achieve the Republican agenda."
Allen and McSweeney did not talk on Wednesday, according to Allen's spokesman, Ken Stroupe.
Also Wednesday, the largest and most powerful group of religious conservatives, television evangelist Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, abruptly cancelled a news conference called to discuss the dispute.
"We are not favoring anybody," said Mike Russell, the coalition's spokesman. "We are reacting to the fact that a change has been proposed; and any time that happens, a red flag goes up. We are getting calls from our grass-roots members asking us what the significance of this is, and that's what we are trying to find out."
Russell said coalition executive director Ralph Reed would make a statement before Saturday's meeting of the GOP State Central Committee, the party's governing body. That group is expected to consider Allen's request to oust McSweeney.
Some of the nearly 50 Republicans who signed a letter in support of McSweeney on Tuesday said they did not know Allen had requested McSweeney's resignation before the letter was released.
"It puts people like me in a very awkward position," said Pat Mullins, chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party.
He said both McSweeney and Allen are popular in his county, where Republican faithful had hoped Allen's impressive victory last month signaled a new era of harmony for the party.
Mullins doubts Allen can muster the 75 percent support from the central committee needed to oust McSweeney. But he said Allen can cripple McSweeney by winning a simple majority in a no-confidence or censure vote on the chairman.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB