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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994                   TAG: 9409060020
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE: COLEMAN MUST STAY INDEPENDENT

A judge ruled Friday that Marshall Coleman cannot run as the U.S. Senate candidate of a party that was spun off from Ross Perot's organization.

Richmond Circuit Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. agreed with the state Board of Elections, which ruled that the Virginia Independent Party did not meet the state's legal requirements for becoming a political party.

State law requires an organization to have an active central committee for six months before being certified as a political party. The Virginia Independent Party contended that it was a continuation of the Perot Petition Committee of Virginia, and therefore was in existence during that six-month period.

Hughes said, however, that the two groups were separate corporations. ``H. Ross Perot did not run for president in Virginia in 1992 as plaintiff's candidate or of any other political party,'' he wrote.

He added that the organization did not have an elected state chairman for six months prior to seeking party designation, as required by state law.

The organization that supported Perot's independent presidential bid in Virginia in 1992 was dormant for about a year before deciding in June to back Coleman's candidacy.

Coleman spokesman Eric Peterson said party affiliation might have had some benefit ``from a symbolic perspective,'' but he did not view the ruling as a significant setback.

``While we're certain the plaintiff is disappointed, from the campaign perspective most of the volunteers of that organization have melded themselves into our organization already,'' Peterson said. ``It doesn't make a lot of difference as far as strategy is concerned.''

Louis S. Herrink Sr., the VIP's chairman, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Coleman, former Republican state attorney general, is one of three candidates challenging Democratic Sen. Charles Robb. The others are Republican Oliver North, the central figure in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal, and independent Douglas Wilder, the former Democratic governor.

by CNB