Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
And that, they said, could jeopardize efforts at unity when the legislature convenes next month for a special session on parole reform, called by Republican Gov. George Allen.
A Gilmore spokesman countered that the GOP officeholder was right to criticize "liberal Democrats ... and naysayers in the legislature" in a recently mailed anti-parole fund-raising appeal.
The letter solicited contributions of up to $2,500 for a newly formed political action committee that says it plans a $60,000 grass-roots lobbying effort for parole reform in the next month.
"The Democrats have been in office for 12 years," said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Gilmore. "It's taken a Republican governor and attorney general to finally get things moving.''
The controversy comes four weeks before lawmakers are scheduled to assemble in a special session to consider Allen's call for abolishing parole and reforming the state's sentencing structure.
The authors of the Allen plan have cast their work as a bipartisan effort, even though Allen almost certainly will get top credit for any reform.
But Allen will need Democratic support to get a plan through the legislature, and some Democrats - who have had their own parole reform study under way for more than a year - said Gilmore's attack could sharpen partisan feelings.
The Gilmore letter is "a mistake, particularly for it to come out now. Gilmore's promoting his own personal political purposes," said Sen. Richard Holland, D-Windsor, a member of the legislature's parole study group.
Other Democrats attending a parole meeting at the Capitol were even harsher.
"I think it's tawdry," said Del. Jay DeBoer of Petersburg, who suggested that the Committee for a Safe Virginia may be a front for a "Gilmore for Governor" fund-raising effort. Gilmore is expected to seek the GOP nod for governor in 1997. "The attorney general is flagrantly violating the call for cooperation. ... I've never yet met the pro-crime lobby."
"I've never seen a letter like that coming from a statewide officeholder," added Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, who questioned whether Gilmore should register as a lobbyist. "I don't think this is the way Virginia government should work."
But Miner said it is "absolutely false and misleading" that the committee serves a political purpose for Gilmore, who is a founder and honorary chairman.
The president of the group, which filed state papers as a political action committee in mid-July, is a Gilmore political supporter and former Richmond GOP chairman. Miner also acknowledged that the group's initial mailing went primarily to Republicans as well as political lobbyists.
But he said the group expects bipartisan membership, and that future mailings also will go to Democrats.
"The attorney general is elected by the people of Virginia to fight crime. This is a way to go out there and fight for a safe Virginia," he said.
The four-page Aug. 12 letter, signed by Gilmore, urged recipients to become founding members of the group and said the committee "will be active for many years."
"During the next seven weeks, we must put pressure on the liberals and the naysayers in the legislature. ... Already the liberal Democrats and the professional bureaucrats are working to undermine our proposals," the letter stated.
According to the letter, the committee plans to push the Allen plan by:
Contacting 50,000 business and community leaders for support.
Publishing lists of supporters in statewide media.
Distributing 100,000 postcards for citizens to use in contacting legislators.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the legislative parole study plan voiced some skepticism about a report this week that the Allen plan will add only $200 million to $250 million to the approximately $650 million already needed for prison construction over the next 10 years.
"That sounds too low. ... That sounds much too low," said H. Lane Kneedler, a Richmond attorney who heads the financial subcommittee of the legislative study group.
by CNB