Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Some of them came to a luncheon in his honor at the Dublin Comfort Inn, but asked reporters not to name them because they did not want to be seen as being disloyal to the party.
"But Marshall's a friend of mine," at least two of them said in explaining their attendance. One wore an "I'm Partial to Marshall" badge dating from Coleman's successful campaign to become Virginia's first Republican attorney general in 1977.
Coleman, now running as an independent in a four-way race for U.S. Senate, drew about 20 people for the luncheon before taking a walking tour through Pulaski. He planned other Southwest Virginia stops today.
Coleman said he does not see his campaign as dividing the GOP vote, even though Iran-Contra figure Oliver North won the Republican nomination.
"The Republicans were divided before I came on the scene. Most Republicans felt that they didn't have a viable candidate they could support," he said after the luncheon.
On Wednesday, more than 200 supporters showed up to hear North stump for Republican congressional candidate Steve Fast in Radford.
In his talk, Coleman concentrated his criticism on Democratic Sen. Charles Robb, calling him "a Clinton clone" - a phrase also used by North when he visited the New River Valley - for his support of the president's programs. Robb has denied that he supports Clinton unquestioningly, and has given examples of votes against presidential programs.
"Bill Clinton will not be able to count on my vote," Coleman said.
Coleman made it clear that, if elected, he would go to Congress as a Republican, not an independent. "I look forward to the opportunity to serve in the Senate so we will have two Republican senators."
The state's Republican senator, John Warner, has declined to support North's candidacy and has openly supported Coleman.
"The people of Virginia don't want either of the candidates, North or Robb. They want an alternative," Coleman told the group in Dublin.
Reminded afterward that there is a fourth candidate, Coleman said he is not discounting Doug Wilder, the former Democratic Virginia governor who also is running as an independent.
"He, like me, is very dissatisfied with the nominee of his party," Coleman said. "The Democrats are divided because they have a terrible candidate, too"
The Democrats were taken over by "a bunch of people who talked about loyalty oaths" in the 1970s, Coleman said, just as North loyalists are doing now. But he said Virginians do not want to see someone in the Senate through the year 2001 who will bring ridicule on their state and make it the butt of TV talk-show jokes.
Coleman has been a member of the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, and was an unsuccessful candidate for governor. Like North and Robb, he is a former Marine officer who served in Vietnam.
In talks earlier in the day, Coleman lauded Gov. George Allen's anti-crime program, saying it "offered a clear contrast" to the Clinton bill now before Congress. The congressional bill was loaded with "social engineering" programs that drove its cost up, Coleman said. A presidential line-item veto would help cut the pork from such bills, he added.
Asked about abortion, Coleman said he personally opposes it but would not vote either to outlaw or support it. "There are problems in society that government can't solve. That's one of them."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB