Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409160071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Former U.S. Senate hopeful Jim Miller gave a folksy, emphatic endorsement to help Fast raise money for his bid to upset six-term Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
The gathering of 150 Republicans raised more than $5,000, said Montgomery County GOP Chairman Pat Cupp. It came a day after an Abingdon dinner featuring Gov. George Allen pushed the Fast campaign over the $130,000 mark. That's still a far cry from Boucher's $600,000-plus war chest, but more than his last GOP opponent was able to raise.
The Fast campaign plans to step up fund raising in coming weeks. On Oct. 10, former Bush Cabinet secretary and 1996 presidential contender Jack Kemp will stump with Fast.
Miller, who lost the Senate nomination to Oliver North in June, criticized Boucher but reserved his harshest words for President Clinton.
"Bill Clinton is a disaster," Miller said. His fearless prediction: "Bill Clinton will be a one-term president."
"Rick Boucher walks a fine line between trying to do a few little conservative things - because he knows the fighting 9th is conservative - but he supports his president," Miller said. "The polling information looks good for [Fast]. I'm not surprised. Rick Boucher has not been a good congressman for this district and Rick Boucher votes for Bill Clinton. Steve Fast will vote for you."
Throughout his re-election campaign, Boucher has stood by Clinton. At a Labor Day campaign kickoff in Abingdon, for example, Boucher lauded Clinton's accomplishments during what he termed the most productive first year of a presidency in 30 years.
Boucher doesn't always vote with the White House, however. The 48-year-old lawyer opposed the now-defunct plans to increase tobacco taxes to fund health reform, and he voted against the crime bill last month.
Fast, 33, lives in Tazewell and is on leave from Bluefield College, where he is an assistant professor of mathematics. He picked up on Miller's theme in ticking off three main reforms he wants to work on in Washington: changing the tax structure to reduce taxes for working families; using "common-sense, conservative" measures to improve the country's health-care system, such as encouraging medical savings accounts; and reforming Congress with term limits, staffing cuts and steps to limit the power of committee chairmen.
"I'll go to Washington remembering I'm the son of a truck driver who grew up in a working home and worked his way through graduate school supporting his family, that I'm a husband and father who knows what it's like to raise those kids, to meet those bills and what the people back home are facing," Fast said.
Miller will continue to stump for Fast today at a 7:45 a.m. breakfast at the Renaissance Restaurant in Pulaski.
Boucher holds a reception at 6 p.m. today at the Great Oaks Country Club in Floyd.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB