Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220201
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER Note: below
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Although Miller badly trails Republican Oliver North and Democrat Charles Robb in overall fund raising in the campaign, records show that he has raised more than twice as much money from Virginians this year than either opponent.
North, relying on a sophisticated, national direct-mail approach to raise cash, collected 84 percent of his contributions this year from outside Virginia, according to a report he filed last week with the Federal Election Commission. Of the $591,000 in contributions listed, less than $96,000 came from the Old Dominion.
Robb, banking on a variety of national Democratic sources, collected 77 percent of his money outside the state, according to the report. Of the $238,000 in contributions he listed this year, $55,000 came from Virginians.
Miller's campaign, on the other hand, relied on Virginians for almost 76 percent of contributions this year. Of the $252,000 he raised during the first three months of this year, $191,000 came from state residents.
Several political scientists say that the percentage of out-of-state funding for North and Robb is extremely high and leaves both candidates open to charges that they are running national campaigns.
Analysts say the figures offer proof that Virginia's remarkable Senate race has roused national passions while at the same time raising new questions about whether state voters have any stomach for Robb or North.
"This is unprecedented in Virginia," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "It says something significant about a candidate when he has more support out-of-state than inside."
Jonathan Baron, a spokesman for the Miller campaign, naturally agreed. "While Oliver North and Chuck Robb have been traveling to every nook and cranny in the country to further their careers, Jim Miller has been focusing on Virginia," he said.
All told, the race is shaping up as the most expensive in Virginia history. Since 1993, North has raised $4.5 million, and Robb has raised $1.4 million, while Miller has collected $547,000. No other candidates approach those figures.
Spokesmen for North and Miller said that the reports are not an accurate gauge of their fund-raising efforts.
Federal election laws require candidates to identify all contributors who have donated $200 or more. Both campaigns said they have a sizeable number of small contributors - mostly Virginians, they say - whom they were not required to identify on reports.
Daniel McClagen, a North spokesman, said the $591,000 in contributions reported represents only 20 percent of the donations the campaign received during the first three months of this year. North raised another $2.3 million in small contributions. "These are not fat cats, but average Virginians who come to campaign events and write checks," he said.
Twenty percent of Robb's donations - totaling $61,000 - came from small contributors. Bert Rohrer, a Robb spokesman, suggested that about two-thirds of these benefactors are Virginians.
Both campaigns denied requests this week to allow a reporter to inspect their list of small contributors to verify the claims. The campaigns also declined to release their own computations of in-state and out-of-state fund-raising totals.
Sabato dismissed the two campaigns' unverifiable assertions that their small contributors are from Virginia, particularly in the case of North. "Most of the money he's raising comes from direct mail being sent across the country," he said. "Most of what you receive from direct mail is small contributions."
North's prowess as a direct-mail fund-raiser may be unrivaled. Between 1988 and 1992, he raised more than $20 million through national mail solicitations to help pay his legal bills stemming from the Iran-Contra scandal and to form a conservative interest group and a political action committee.
Through those efforts, North reportedly has collected the names of almost 500,000 potential contributors across the nation. During the first three months of this year, his campaign has spent $1.3 million for postage and mailings.
"The truth of the matter is we've got to get the money from somewhere," said Mark Merritt, North's chief spokesman. "Chuck Robb is raising money from his Hollywood pals and from PACs."
Robb is the son-in-law of Lyndon Johnson and has access to the former president's substantial fund-raising sources in Texas. And as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1990, Robb cultivated friendships with influential contributors across the country.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB