Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240184
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS and WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Former Gov. Gerald Baliles, former U.S. Sen. Paul Trible and even an unnamed "credible independent candidate" would defeat Robb and North in a three-way race held today, suggests the survey conducted last weekend by Mason-Dixon Political/Research Inc. of Columbia, Md. The survey was done for the Roanoke Times & World-News and television station WDBJ (Channel 7).
But Wilder runs third in an extremely close three-way contest, according to the poll.
Wilder, who shook up the Senate contest this week by hinting that he might enter it, said he's encouraged by his showing in the poll. Given Robb's and North's head start in campaigning, "that has to be considered amazing that we are in a statistical dead heat," Wilder said.
Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, announced his candidacy, offering himself as a fresh-faced alternative to Robb and North. He is beginning a petition drive to put himself on the party's June 14 primary ballot.
"I am ready to wage a hard-charging campaign for the U.S. Senate and ready to work for all of Virginia," said Goode, a 47-year-old Rocky Mount conservative with a deep populist streak. "I have supported Chuck Robb in the past, but now is the time for a fresh face and a new approach."
Goode later told reporters: "I want to be another and better choice."
In an interview, Wilder said he feels "vindicated" by Goode's entry, and argued that "what I've been trying to say for 1 1/2 years is coming to the surface. It would have been heresy for Virgil Goode to dare running prior to my showing it was necessary."
Goode's entry has not halted Wilder's own reconsideration of a decision last January to drop out of the contest, he added.
Wilder repeated his insistence that he has done nothing to promote his candidacy, but added that "I have not said not to do it" when friends offered to start petitions or begin promoting him.
Independent candidates must collect 14,865 signatures by June 14 to get on the November ballot.
The Mason-Dixon poll found that 69 percent of the 837 registered Virginia voters surveyed wished that a "credible independent candidate" would enter the Senate race. Only 19 percent said they were satisfied with the current choices.
While both North and Robb were mentioned by name in other sections of the poll, two announced opponents - Republican Jim Miller and Democrat Sylvia Clute - were not. The poll does not measure how Clute and Miller would do in three-way races, instead presuming that Robb and North will get the nominations.
That may be a flawed presumption. A Mason-Dixon poll Monday showed that Miller, a former federal budget director, has surged ahead of North among statewide voters, and would be in a dead heat with Robb. That poll showed North trailing Robb by 17 percentage points.
The nomination will be decided by a few thousand Republican activists at a state convention June 3-4.
The three-way matchups suggested by Mason-Dixon produced these results:
"Unknown credible independent candidate", 30 percent; Robb, 27 percent; North, 19 percent.
Baliles, 36 percent; Robb, 25 percent; North, 17 percent.
Trible, 35 percent; Robb, 32 percent; North, 12 percent.
Robb, 29 percent; North, 28 percent; Wilder, 25 percent.
Neither Baliles nor Trible has expressed interest publicly in running for the Senate. Brad Coker, president of Mason-Dixon, said he picked their names as a way of measuring how well a prominent independent candidate could do.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. That means, for example, that Wilder's numbers might be as high as 28.5 percent or as low as 21.5 percent.
Goode declined to offer specific criticisms of Robb or take stands on other issues until he has the signatures to get on the ballot. He said he will issue a "formal announcement" when that occurs.
Robert Holsworth, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist, said it will be difficult for Goode to win the nomination because he is little-known statewide. His conservative views on such issues as the Equal Rights Amendment, parental notification and gun control also may be at odds with many urban and suburban Democratic activists.
But Holsworth said the unfolding political theater should act as a magnet to Wilder, who "knows in his heart that he belongs in this race."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB