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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 17, 1994                   TAG: 9409190022
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                 LENGTH: Medium

HE SAYS HE'S IN IT TO WIN IT

With U.S. Sen. John Warner campaigning at his side, former GOP state Attorney General Marshall Coleman rejected calls from Democrats and Republicans to abandon his independent race for the U.S. Senate and said momentum has swung his way in the past 48 hours.

Coleman, whose political fortunes have fluctuated like a yo-yo during a two-decade political career, said the departure of former Gov. Douglas Wilder from the Senate race leaves him as the sole hope for thousands of embarrassed Virginians.

``The whole country's not looking at this race because of anything good that's been done,'' said Coleman, who was joined by Warner, his political mentor, at news conferences in Northern Virginia and Norfolk and at two evening fund-raisers in Virginia Beach.

``Two people very much want me out,'' he said, referring to Republican Oliver North and Democratic incumbent Charles Robb, their parties' nominees, ``because the only chance they have is in being compared with each other.''

Tourists in Virginia Beach seemed oblivious to the celebrities in their midst. But both Coleman and Warner said they were greeted warmly earlier as they paused for fried chicken and frozen yogurt.

``Everybody's been congratulating me all day,'' Coleman said.

``People came up to me and said, `Thank you for giving us a choice,''' added Warner.

Two polls published this week showed both Coleman and Wilder hovering in the low teens in percentage of support among voters, while North and Robb each attracted between 28 and 34 percent of the vote, depending on the poll.

Those numbers prompted Wilder to exit the contest Thursday, a departure that political scientists said could benefit Coleman. The most obvious beneficiary of Wilder's demise will be his fellow Democrat, Robb, they predicted.

But several said narrowing the race to three candidates gives Coleman a long-shot chance of victory if voters become so disgusted with the major-party candidates that they demand an alternative.

If Coleman wins, it would be a stunning moment for a politician who has been counted out repeatedly during his career, only to re-emerge.

A Republican, Coleman won his last election to office in 1977 when he ran for attorney general. He was the GOP nominee for governor in 1981, but lost in the general election to Robb.

Four years later, he was so unpopular in his party that he lost a nomination fight for lieutenant governor. But by 1989, he won a startling upset in the GOP primary for governor. That fall he lost to Wilder by fewer than 7,000 votes in the closest such contest in Virginia history.

Some observers, including Tom Morris, a political scientist who is president of Emory & Henry College, said Coleman has ``a narrow window of opportunity'' to capture voters' attention during the next couple of weeks.

Others, including Democratic strategist Paul Goldman, said the more likely scenario - if Coleman has a shot at winning - is a come-from-behind rally in the campaign's closing days.

Warner seemed to subscribe to that theory. ``Oliver North may well have peaked,'' said the Republican senator who has broken with his party over the nomination of North. ``We want to come from way behind and gain momentum."

Warner said Coleman strategists always thought Wilder eventually would leave the race, because to split the Democratic vote would have ended any future he might have in the party.

``But it happened much sooner than we thought,'' Warner said.

Keywords:
POLITICS