Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407120076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Douglas Wilder and Marshall Coleman may be poles apart politically, but they delivered the same message Friday: Don't be put off by my independent status.
Each claimed to be a better representative of his party than the candidate who officially has the nomination.
In separate appearances in Roanoke, the two independents in Virginia's four-way scramble for the U.S. Senate were busy trying to do the same thing.
Both sought to rejuvenate constituencies that have been important for them in the past - and must be again if they are to be competitive this fall.
For Wilder, the nation's first black elected governor, that meant black voters, specifically an appearance before the Valley Baptist Association and Women's Auxiliary, a group of about 100 ministers and lay leaders.
For former state Attorney General Coleman, who grew up in Waynesboro and always has run strong west of the Blue Ridge, that meant a two-day tour of cities from Winchester to Roanoke, where he played up his valley connections.
Along the way, both independents sought to portray themselves as good party members - who just happen to be running without benefit of nomination.
Coleman took pains to depict himself as a conventional Republican and to characterize GOP nominee Oliver North as an aberration.
Indeed, to listen to Coleman, he sounded as if were the Republican nominee. He called on Virginians to elect "another Republican senator" - meaning himself - and declared, "I have been a Republican since before I was old enough to ride a bicycle in Waynesboro."
Coleman also sounded traditional conservative anti-tax themes - calling for cutting the capital gains tax, rolling back the Clinton tax package enacted last year, pushing a tax cut for an undefined class of "middle-income" families.
"Taxes are too high, and they're interfering with our prosperity," Coleman said. He called incumbent Democrat Charles Robb a "Clinton clone" who "holds office under false pretenses" because he ran as a moderate but then moved left to back the Clinton agenda - a typical Republican broadside.
But Coleman also tried to paint his party's nominee as unfit for public office. "I can't stand by and see my party become the party of Oliver North or Virginia become the state of Oliver North," Coleman said at a news conference.
The problem is not that North is pushing a strongly conservative message, Coleman said, it's his conduct in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal, which resulted in North's conviction for three felonies - convictions that were thrown out on appeal.
"It goes without saying we need people who have respect for the rule of law, that no one is above the law," Coleman said. "When we accept people who think they're above the law, we're on a very slippery slope."
A few hours later, Wilder struck much the same stance. "I'm a Democrat," he told the Baptists. He just happens to be running without the party's blessing, he said.
Furthermore, Wilder warned Democratic Party leaders not to punish party members who abandon Robb to work for him. "Why should the party kick out people in '94, when I know you'll need the same people in '95 and '96 and '97?" Wilder asked. "There is nothing people should be purged for. I'm getting a great deal of help from party chairmen in some areas."
Although Coleman and Wilder face the same task of organizing a statewide campaign outside the regular party apparatus, there are some significant differences in the way the two parties are responding.
Republicans have put a high price on party loyalty, and even Coleman concedes he'll have a hard time getting traditional GOP activists to work for him - at least publicly.
"It's going to be a different campaign," Coleman said. "I'm not going to pretend it's not." Instead, he's hoping to recruit volunteers from the ranks of ordinary citizens who have taken an interest in this race. "We've got pages and pages of people who have called," he said. But he was reluctant Friday to identify his principal backers in the Roanoke Valley, saying he's "just started" organizing here.
Democrats, though, have not tried to enforce party loyalty to the same degree the GOP has - apparently because party leaders fear offending the black voters who constitute the backbone of Wilder's support. Indeed, at the Baptist convention, Wilder was able to claim public support from many longtime Democratic Party activists.
Some said it's because they're disgusted with Robb's admission of marital impropriety and want to send a "clean" Democrat to Washington.
"I'm supporting Wilder, not because he's black, but because of his character," said Perneller Wilson, a prominent Roanoke community activist. "We need to stop sending people to Capitol Hill who do not know their ethics, their duties, their moral and legal obligations. Chuck Robb and Oliver North, neither one should be on Capitol Hill. Foreign countries are laughing at us. We need people our youth can look up to."
But the Rev. Carl Tinsley, a former Roanoke Democratic Party chairman, said Wilder's race is a factor for many black Democrats. Tinsley says he is sticking with Robb because he doesn't want to see the party split. However, he said, "it's agony for me. You want to support your people."
Wilder's independent status, though, doesn't bother Carolyn Word, a former aide to ex-Rep. Jim Olin, a Democrat. Wilder's "an independent Democrat. What's the big deal? He's a Democrat, and he's the best candidate."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB