Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180100
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
More than 200 enthusiastic Oliver North fans braved an intermittent drizzle and threatening skies to hear the Republican U.S. Senate candidate stump for himself and Steve Fast, a Bluefield mathematics professor seeking to upset Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, this fall.
Clutching posters, bumper stickers and copies of the retired Marine officer's 1991 book, "Under Fire," the crowd descended upon North for autographs almost as soon as he stepped out of the very conspicuous North-for-Senate motor home beside the park's picnic pavilion.
North's first words to the 90-minute lunchtime rally?
"Eat, eat!"
Along with bring-your-own bag lunches and free soft drinks, the Republican partisans ate up the stump speeches of Fast and Mike Farris, last year's unsuccessful GOP candidate for lieutenant governor.
But the main event was North, who has crisscrossed Southwest Virginia since Monday in his RV campaign against incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles Robb and two independent candidates: former Gov. Douglas Wilder and ex-Attorney General Marshall Coleman. North came to Radford from Marion. Today, the parade heads to Richmond, then to Fairfax on Friday.
North asked the crowd - ranging from toddlers to retirees and including New River Valley politicos and police - for their prayers and the pledge of support, both financial and in spreading the word about his campaign.
The listeners liked what they heard.
"Oh, my sister's going to be so jealous," said Blacksburg resident Johnnie Hoehn, clutching a just-autographed copy of "Under Fire." Her sister, she explained, is as big a North fan as she is.
Bill Hylton, too, drove down from Blacksburg to see North. Said Hylton, "He's honest, regardless of what the papers say."
Standing beside him, Radford resident Pete Woodrum harkened back to North's 1987 testimony before Congress on the Iran-Contra scandal to explain why he likes the former White House aide. "He made the whole Congress look like a bunch of stuffed shirts," Woodrum said.
Mozel Wade of Radford had her photograph taken with North. But she liked what she heard about Fast, too. "He stands for what all we believe in, and against Bill Clinton."
Not everyone was a hard-core Ollie fan. Student Brian Murphy questioned North in a receiving line following the speeches. "I just want to make sure you're going to tell us the truth," Murphy told the candidate.
"I've never broken a commitment in my life," North replied.
Both North and Fast spoke to tax issues, fighting crime and the preservation of gun rights. North, citing a story in Wednesday's Richmond Times-Dispatch, told the crowd that when he launched his campaign during the winter, he would never have believed he would be ahead in the polls by mid-August. North reported the newspaper's polling results as: 31 percent for him; 19 percent for Robb; 9 percent for Wilder; and less than that for the "other guy." Still, don't rely on the media to get the message out, North said.
"They tried to make it bad news," he said. The Times-Dispatch portrayed his lead as "an ephemeral margin of victory," North said.
What North didn't say was that the Times-Dispatch/12 News Metro Poll was a sampling of voter opinion in Richmond and its suburbs, not the entire state. The newspaper reported that North garnered the support of 30 percent of voters compared with 20 percent for Robb, 19 percent for Wilder and 7 percent for Coleman. The paper reported North's lead could be "illusory" because the poll had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
Statewide poll results released last month showed either all four candidates bunched in the 20s or North and Robb dead even in the high 20s.
North urged the crowd to hit the hustings for Fast to help dump "Slick Rick" Boucher. "I don't want to be lonely up there," North said. "I want good conservatives who will represent traditional family values, who understand how hard people work.
"Can you imagine a real crime bill, the Fast-North bill, going through Congress?"
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB