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

DATE: MONDAY, October 3, 1994                   TAG: 9410040066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                  LENGTH: Medium

WITH SO MUCH MONEY, IT'S GETTING HARD TO CRY 'WOLF'

Oliver North's campaign is going well, but he has continued to maintain a "do-or-die" urgency with direct-mail contributors from across the nation who are financing his U.S. Senate campaign.

In one direct-mail appeal, the Republican pleaded for "emergency" donations to counter what he described as "my opponent Chuck Robb's multi-million [dollar] smear campaign [that] is moving into high gear - and having a negative impact on my poll numbers."

But the letter was dated Sept. 9, two weeks before incumbent U.S. Sen. Charles Robb had run a single television commercial and at a time when North was saying publicly that his own internal polls showed him pulling ahead.

"He's lied to Ronald Reagan ... and now he's lying to the supporters who are paying his bills," said Bert Rohrer, Robb's campaign spokesman.

North stands by the fund-raising letter, saying it was written when internal polls showed him taking a temporary dip after Robb raised the Iran-Contra issue for the first time at an Aug. 26 news conference.

"As soon as he came down out of his ivory tower at the end of August, Chuck Robb went out and personally attacked me," North said.

North said "Robb's multi-million [dollar] smear campaign" was a reference to the money the incumbent had raised from political action committees and "the most radical elements of society."

Larry Sabato, a political analyst from the University of Virginia, called the North letter standard for the direct-mail fund-raising genre that relies upon "phony" emotionalism and personal appeals.

"What's really disturbing is it's just standard operating procedure - on the left, right and middle of the political spectrum," Sabato said. "Most people throw these things away. For those who open the letters up, you have to grab them by the lapels and not let go of them emotionally until the end, until they reach for their checkbooks.

"Direct mail is a phony medium in many ways. That's part of its success. You have to be between a little and a lot gullible to swallow everything in a direct-mail piece."

North's direct-mail operation, which has a list of more than 170,000 contributors from across the United States, is the subterranean weapon of his well-financed campaign. North mails out appeals for funds almost weekly, and his supporters, many of them retirees, reply with checks for $5, $20, $50 or whatever they can afford.

Direct mail is the cornerstone of North's fund-raising apparatus, which is expected to eclipse the Senate record of $16.9 million set by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in 1990.

Robb said the contributor list makes North a political force to be reckoned with, win or lose in November.

North has been a national celebrity - and a formidable fund-raiser - since his defiant appearance before a congressional panel that in 1987 investigated the diversion of profits from arms-for-hostages deals with Iran to anti-communist rebels fighting in Nicaragua. North's three felony convictions were overturned by an appeals court.

In August, North sent out a letter in which he explained that his campaign staff had set a goal of raising $15 million. "It's outrageous but totally accurate," North wrote. "My opponent will probably spend more than that."

Robb, who always has said he could never match North's campaign money, called the claim "bizarre" and predicted that it had fooled a lot of elderly people.

"The recipients will think, `Poor Ollie. He needs a hand, and I've already made an investment in him. I'm going to him him some more money. I'll give him half of my pension.'''

Keywords:
POLITICS