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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 28, 1993                   TAG: 9312280143
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

WILDER RIVAL ATTACKS `SLUSH FUND'

One of Gov. Douglas Wilder's likely rivals for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination attacked Wilder on Monday for keeping a $1 million "slush fund" and refusing to resign as governor when he ran for president.

The criticism came in an exchange of sharply worded letters between Daniel Alcorn and former Wilder aide Bill Porter over whether Alcorn should resign from a Washington airport board if he runs for the Senate.

Porter, now an executive of a Maryland technology firm, and Alcorn, 11th District Democratic chairman, were both appointed by Wilder to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

But the governor tried to replace Alcorn this year before his term ended. Alcorn filed a lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge Joyce Green ruled that Wilder could not remove him.

Porter, who was Wilder's deputy chief of staff until March 1992, wrote Alcorn on Wednesday suggesting he resign from the airport board if he runs for the Senate.

The airport board's independence from political influence could be threatened if one of its members is running for office, Porter wrote.

"The best interest of the authority requires you to decouple your candidacy from your board membership," he wrote.

Alcorn wrote back Monday saying that a lawyer advised him that a candidate can serve on the board. "I will recuse myself from issues or votes when I am advised that this would maintain the proper appearance."

Porter said he was acting on his own in writing the letter, but Alcorn said he saw Wilder's handiwork. "When the governor tried to remove me from the board previously, Bill Porter worked with him on that. So I assume it's the same song, second verse."

In his reply to Porter, Alcorn questioned the ethics of Wilder's actions as governor.

"While Gov. Wilder was running for president, he accepted campaign donations from persons with interests in his actions as governor, and he did not step down as governor," Alcorn wrote.

"Gov. Wilder maintains a $1 million slush fund called the `Inaugural Fund,' which is money raised from many special interests at the time of his inauguration as governor," he wrote.

Alcorn said he plans to bring up Wilder's 1992 presidential bid and the inaugural fund during the Senate campaign. Wilder's office had no comment.

Keywords:
POLITICS

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB