Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First, the Republican Senate candidate was seen fishing on Smith Mountain Lake and shooting sporting clays at a hunting lodge near Altavista.
Next, he dropped in on a Harley-Davidson rally in Orange County.
Sunday night, North found another unique venue - he stopped by a "cruise-in" of vintage 1950s automobiles at Wright's Dairy Rite in Staunton.
Country music fans may recognize Wright's from one of the Statler Brothers' album covers. They're regulars at the joint. So is North these days. Aides say that whenever the candidate is passing through the Shenandoah Valley, he insists they detour by Wright's so he can slurp down a chocolate malt.
Surfin' USA
It may be that vestiges of North's well-funded Contra army now roam the jungles of Nicaragua with little to show for those heady days except some moldy canvas. But Senate candidate North's exploits in Central America haven't been totally forgotten in the torrid zone. They have now been memorialized in - of all things - a recently released surfing film, "The Endless Summer II."
Filmmaker Bruce Brown took his two star surfers, Californians Robert ``Wingnut'' Weaver and Pat O'Connell, to Costa Rica. In one sequence, Brown and his surfing duo take a boat to a remote beach to surf a spot where the waves pound ashore in perfect, windblown tubes. The surf spot, Brown narrates, has become known as ``Ollie's Point'' because of its proximity to a clandestine airstrip from which Contra supply flights originated. Brown jokes that everyone - particularly surfers - seemed to know about the airstrip; everyone, that is, ``except Congress.''
Coleman cries foul
Ask political reporters who their favorite candidate is, and odds are Republican-turned-independent Marshall Coleman would be high on the list. Nobody schmoozes better than Coleman, who's a master at stroking journalists' already-inflated egos. When he shows up at an event, he not only works the crowd, he always makes a point of shaking hands with the reporters, too.
Last week, however, Coleman blistered the state's press corps for writing off his independent candidacy. "The political reporters who talk to the campaign staffs and the political activists are succumbing to the North and Robb strategies of making this appear to be a two-candidate race," Coleman said. "If a handful of political reporters and a couple of thousand party activists can effectively push two candidates [meaning Coleman and fellow independent Wilder] out of a U.S. Senate race before Labor Day, then the voters of Virginia truly are the Forgotten Majority."
Coleman's blame-the-media news conference wasn't his first, though. In many ways, it was a repeat of his closing blast of the 1989 governor's race, in which he accused reporters of being "fixated" on the historic nature of Wilder's candidacy. That attack was credited by some with reviving Coleman's campaign and nearly carrying him to victory. Will it work again? Stay tuned.
Bashful backers
One reason political pundits have been writing off Coleman's candidacy is that he doesn't have many supporters to show off.
But Steve Johnson - a former Robb press secretary who did part of his doctoral work at the University of Virginia on Coleman's victory in the 1989 Republican gubernatorial primary - says don't be deceived.
Coleman's target group this year, Johnson notes, is suburbanites. "Coleman's constituency is likely to be more passive than any constituency in the race," Johnson says. "Upper-middle-class suburbs are not hotbeds of political participation," at least not the envelope-licking and door-knocking kind.
But suburbanites do vote. "Remember, the suburbs cast 58 percent of the vote in 1993," Johnson says. "It could go to 60 percent this year."
Pennies from heaven
Usually, candidates send out letters asking for money. Lately, North has taken to mailing out money in his fund-raising letters - specifically, two shiny pennies.
"Dear Friend," North writes, "You're probably wondering why I glued two pennies on this letter." The reason, North says, is he wants to know what's on voters' minds. "Since I want you to give me your own `two cents,' I thought I would give you mine first."
Of course, the "help" North really wants is financial. He invites his correspondents to donate anywhere from $10 to $1,000 to his campaign. North mailed out 100,000 such letters - that's about $2,000 worth of pennies.
It's a good attention-getter, says North spokesman Dan McLagan, who assures supporters that North gets back far more money than he sends out.
Edward Power of Landmark News Service contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB