Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Coleman - whose candidacy has been rumored for weeks - will make his intentions clear in a series of media interviews on Monday, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Coleman then will spend the rest of the week telephoning supporters from his unsuccessful bids for governor in 1981 and 1989, the aide said.
Northern Virginia developer Dan Clemente - who in April launched a petition drive to get Coleman's name on the ballot - announced Saturday that he has collected 20,000 signatures, more than enough to meet the legal requirement of 14,800.
Those petitions will be filed with the state Board of Elections before the June 14 deadline, the aide said.
Coleman will wait until after the June 14 Democratic primary to make his "formal" declaration of candidacy, complete with the standard "fly-around" to hit the state's major television markets.
The prospect of a Coleman candidacy - he'll style himself an "independent Republican" - seemed far-fetched when Clemente announced his "Draft Coleman" petition drive.
But in recent weeks, word has filtered out in political circles that the former state attorney general had begun putting together a staff, raising money and conducting polls in preparation for a campaign that will position him as a conservative alternative to Oliver North.
Both Republican and Democratic leaders have tried to depict Coleman as a has-been who no longer would be taken seriously in a field that might include such big names as North, incumbent Democrat Charles Robb and former Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder, who's plotting his own independent bid.
Moreover, many political analysts have contended that, in a four-way race where the winner might need only 30 percent of the vote, North would be the decided favorite because he's got the strongest core of supporters.
But Coleman's aide said his polling showed 70 percent of Virginians recognized Coleman's name - not bad for a candidate who hasn't run in five years.
Even better, he said, only 16 percent of those polled had bad things to say about Coleman; by contrast, North's negatives have hovered in the 50 percent range.
The aide said that would enable Coleman to run against North, Robb and Wilder as the only candidate without baggage.
Coleman's greatest strength is seen as being in the state's suburbs among what North advisers have dismissed as "country club Republicans."
But the Coleman aide said his man also could count on a reservoir of support among rural voters in Western Virginia; Coleman grew up in Staunton and Waynesboro and represented the region in the General Assembly in the 1970s.
"Pat McSweeney [the state Republican chairman] will try to say Marshall's not a Republican anymore, but those people in the Shenandoah Valley know what kind of man he is," the aide said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB