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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994                   TAG: 9405240012
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REPUBLICANS

The latest legal soup du jour is a complaint by GOP convention delegates who are supporting Jim Miller for the U.S. Senate nomination that supporters of rival Oliver North are trying to intimidate them from attending the convention.

If true, that could be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

One Miller supporter and a longtime GOP activist, Sterling E. Rives Jr. of Petersburg, says he received a "threatening call, more or less" that demanded a pledge from Rives that he would support whoever is the party's nominee. He said the caller strongly suggested that any delegate who wouldn't make that pledge ought not go to the June convention.

The Miller campaign alleges that other Miller delegates have also received calls telling them that they could be forced to have their names and pictures used with North as endorsements if he wins the nomination. (Now there's a reason to stay home.)

A North campaign spokesman said that the campaign has been calling delegates to remind them of the loyalty oath, but that it's not making threatening calls. A party spokesman said the party itself is not making calls. The description of the calls by the Miller people suggest cause for annoyance or outrage, but probably not jail time.

The latest flap comes on the heels of a court action brought by three University of Virginia law students challenging GOP party rules requiring a $45 filing fee from convention delegates. The students alleged the fee was an illegal poll tax, and although their lawsuit was dismissed by a federal court in Roanoke on Wednesday, the students indicated they may appeal.

Again, there may be no legal remedy, but common sense and political decency would suggest that charging voters is a bad idea. As bad as trying to discourage potential voters from participating.

The GOP, of course, might have avoided these legal briar patches - and some negative ink - had it opted, as did Virginia Democrats this year, to choose a Senate nominee in a primary election as opposed to a convention.

One of the reasons Virginia Republicans gave for going the convention route is that conventions are less divisive than primaries. Do they still believe that?

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POLITICS