Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406060050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WOOLWINE - If you've stopped in any country stores lately, you know that supporters of former Gov. Douglas Wilder and former Attorney General Marshall Coleman aren't the only ones circulating petitions to get their man on the ballot as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate.
So are the backers of one George "Tex" Wood of Patrick County.
Wood, 47, a part-time English instructor at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, says he's running because Virginians need a "normal citizen" on the ballot.
So since February, he's been traveling the state, collecting the 15,000 signatures needed to make the ballot. The bulletin board of many a country store displays his photocopied flier - and his petitions are by the cash register.
"Just about nine out of 10 people will sign a petition if it's in front of 'em and half will sign with fevered glee," Wood says.
Nonetheless, Wood - who says he has 10 volunteers statewide helping him - says he hasn't reached his goal yet. "While we can't smell getting on the ballot yet, we can look at it."
He figures he'll know sometime this week whether he'll make the cut.
Wood says he doesn't regret the effort he's put into his petition drive - or the $4,000 he's spent. "If I don't get on the ballot, I'll just go fishing," he says.
And if he does make the ballot, he figures he's sure to win. "If an independent who is somewhat moderate makes the ballot, I think the independent will win," he says. "The petition drive is a lot more difficult than the election would ever be."
Warner: Would he be safer in Bosnia?
When the Washington Post reported last week that U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., might run as an independent in 1996 to avoid having to do battle with his party's right wing in a convention, Warner was quick to send out what he called a "correction."
"I have never said that I would renounce the Republican Party," Warner's statement said. "I have repeatedly made it clear that I will seek re-election to the United States Senate in 1996, and that I will continue to be a member of the Senate Republican Conference."
But between running for re-election and caucusing with other Republican senators lies a loophole big enough to drive a truck - or, in Warner's case, an "independent Republican" candidacy - through.
Warner, of course, stayed away from this weekend's GOP convention, taking part in D-Day commemorations in France instead. He and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole also laid in a trip Saturday and Sunday to Croatia and Bosnia.
With friends like this . . .
Del. John "Butch" Davies, D-Culpeper, has endorsed Sen. Charles Robb for renomination. But that didn't stop Davies from holding a reception at his law office last week for Robb's rival, Virgil Goode.
Nor did it stop Davies from predicting that most of Davies' supporters in Culpeper, Orange, Madison and Greene counties will vote for Goode in the June 14 primary.
As Davies explained to The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, "I made a commitment to Chuck that I have to fulfill, but I am not doing it happily."
Taking the 5th? GOP will try
George Landrith, the Republican challenger to Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, in Virginia's sprawling 5th Congressional District, may be underfunded and little-known.
But he took heart from the recent special election for a congressional seat in Kentucky, where Republican Ron Lewis - described in The Hotline political newsletter as "an unknown Christian bookstore owner" - won a district that had been in Democratic hands for 129 years.
"Many people have noted the similarities between Virginia's 5th District and Kentucky's 2nd," Landrith's campaign pointed out. "Both are rural Southern districts with a long history of voting for conservative Democrats and both voted against Clinton. In both, the Democrat has close ties to Clinton."
And in both, the Republican had close ties to conservative Christian activists.
Landrith - an Albemarle County lawyer and School Board member - is hoping anti-Clinton sentiment in the 5th District will be enough to propel him to Congress alongside the newly-elected Lewis.
The 5th District, by the way, includes Bedford, most of Bedford County, plus Franklin County, Martinsville, Henry County and Patrick County.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB