Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994                   TAG: 9408250124
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Long

NORTH, FORMER DOUBTERS SAY HE'S CHARGING INTO LEAD

Supporters of North's three opponents, including incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles Robb, counter that North's controversial role in the Iran-Contra affair, as well as his association with the religious right, leave him with a limited threshold of support.

But even GOP critics of North say in wide-ranging interviews that he has met two fundamental challenges this summer: He has exceeded expectations in solidifying a Republican base, and projected an aura of momentum among grass-roots voters. If North can continue that trend, particularly by painting Robb as a clone of President Clinton, some former doubters say he could be Virginia's next senator.

Longtime Republican moderate Mike Salster, an Amelia County newspaper editor, is backing Republican-turned-independent Marshall Coleman in the Senate race. But he has an updated perspective on North, who he once doubted could win:

``No matter what the heart says, the brain is picking up signals that this thing is rapidly becoming a runaway,'' said Salster. ``People are mad as hell, and they're lining up behind Ollie.''

Democrats ``have let North have two months of basically going out and creating positive results for himself,'' said a key Republican strategist who supported Jim Miller for the GOP nomination against North and who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``He's toured rural areas that are his base. They've put him before friendly crowds. It's created sort of a halo effect.''

The result is that the former Miller delegates are ``moving into North's camp gingerly,'' he said.

While Robb's Senate duties have kept him in Washington, D.C., North has been logging thousands of miles on his campaign camper, dubbed Asphalt 1. At Sportsmen's Club barbecues and Ruritan fish frys, he has been focusing his steely, magnetic gaze on scores of voters, speaking to them in the same husky, intimate tones he used in greeting supporters at a campaign headquarters opening in suburban Richmond on Wednesday.

``Frances, thank you for coming,'' North said softly as a procession of name tag-wearing supporters filed past. ``Barbara, I appreciate your being here. Bill, thanks.''

Things have been going so well that North strategists earlier this month decided to abandon television ads for about a week and a half, according to a source familiar with the inner workings of the campaign. ``They didn't want to peak too early,'' the source said. ``They didn't want to become the focal point of everybody's fire.''

North showed no such reluctance Wednesday, however, as he claimed to have pulled ahead in the four-way Senate race and predicted that it will be a two-man show by October.

If someone had told him in June that he would be leading the Senate race in mid-August, ``I would have sent them to St. E's for a little recovery,'' said North, referring to a mental hospital in Washington, D.C. ``In fact, we have pulled ahead.''

``By the first of October, it will come down to two candidates,'' he predicted, dismissing Coleman as a factor and forecasting that the fourth candidate, former Gov. Douglas Wilder, will drop out rather than risk sullying his electoral winning streak.

At a news conference, Wilder dismissed the prediction. ``I'm going to be there. There's absolutely nothing that can be offered to me [to get out of the race]. Nothing.''

Some Robb supporters said the senator's schedule is prompting worried comparisons to the 1993 gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Mary Sue Terry. The former attorney general, viewed as keeping a leisurely summer schedule, was beaten handily after leading by a wide margin in early polls.

But Robb strategists denied that North's seemingly free rein on the campaign trail has propelled him ahead of Robb.

The comparison of campaign schedules ``translates into a false sense of security'' for the North campaign, said Susan Platt, director of Robb's campaign.

And David Doak, Robb's media consultant, added: ``Ollie's got a ceiling on how many votes he can get unless he in a major way redefines himself.''

Other Robb strategists said privately that a recent internal campaign poll showed North and Robb tied at about 30 percentage points each in a four-way race, with Wilder and Coleman trailing with 11 percentage points each.

But in a two-way matchup, they said, Robb bested North by 52-39. Their poll shows Robb as the runaway second choice of both Wilder and Coleman supporters. Robb's strategy clearly will be to try to woo those voters away as part of a ``Stop North'' imperative.

Some former Miller supporters who are applauding North's performance this summer acknowledged that substantial liabilities remain. For instance, North's most enthusiastic receptions have been in rural areas. He has yet to demonstrate the same appeal in populous Northern Virginia and some other urban areas.

Voters also have spent much of the summer without being reminded of North's controversial role spearheading covert operations in Latin America and the Middle East during the Iran-Contra affair.

An exception came this week with the disclosure that William Haskell, the man who in a widely viewed television ad praises North for saving his life in Vietnam, also had a role in Iran-Contra.

Haskell, a Maryland tax consultant, assisted North in covert operations in Latin America, according to North biographer Ben Bradlee Jr. and special Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. Thousands of dollars passed through Haskell's hands en route to North-inspired projects aimed at undermining Nicaragua's Sandinista government, those sources said.

Asked if there is political danger in highlighting Haskell, North replied: ``The real record of Iran-Contra is that we saved the lives of people who otherwise would have been ... tortured to death in Beirut, and prevented the Communist expansion in Central America, and I'm not ashamed of that outcome.''

Such controversies continue to repel some Republicans. ``I know all about Ollie North,'' said David W. Mikula, a graphic designer in Roanoke and a Miller delegate to the Republican convention. ``I'm not swayed'' by North's performance this summer, said Mikula, who intends to vote for Coleman.

But Don Moseley, a former 5th District GOP chairman and North critic, said he has changed his opinion that North has little chance of winning this fall.

``North is getting a free ride ... If he continues like he's going now, he's going to clobber the hell out of everybody,'' said Moseley, a Buckingham County businessman. Moseley said he'll probably ``hold his nose'' and vote for North.

``If Robb doesn't get off his butt,'' he added, ``he's history.''

Staff writer Alec Klein contributed to this story.

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POLITICS