Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
A kinder, gentler Virginia Senate race?
Think again.
North appeared in Virginia Beach on Wednesday with former hostage David Jacobsen, who thanked the Iran-Contra figure for winning his freedom, saving his life and being just an all-around great guy.
Sen. Charles Robb's campaign promptly offered up the wife of former captive Jerry Levin, who called North's arms-for-hostages deals ``bogus'' and asked: ``How much are people willing to swallow from this man?''
The battle of the ex-hostages erupted just as a poll was released showing North with a four-point lead over Robb with less than three weeks until the Nov. 8 election.
Conducted Oct. 15-17 for the Roanoke Times & World-News and WDBJ (Channel 7) by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc., the poll of 828 registered voters showed 37 percent favoring North, 33 percent backing Robb and 16 percent supporting independent Marshall Coleman.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent, meaning that the race between North and Robb statistically is a dead heat. But pollster Brad Coker said the probability is strong that North is in fact ahead, and that North remains the only candidate with any sign of momentum.
Lately North has been trying to use that momentum to lift himself into the political comfort zone, where candidates can practice the happier, friendlier side of campaigning.
On Tuesday, for instance, North said he was yanking his campaign's most negative television commercial yet - one reminding voters of Robb's alleged involvement with drugs and a beauty queen - although it was still airing in Roanoke on Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday at his news conference, North hugged Jacobsen on stage and seemed choked with emotion.
Jacobsen was a hostage in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1985 and 1986, the same time North was helping to arrange secret weapons trades with Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages. Jacobsen said he would likely be dead or still in captivity if not for North.
``There is not one day that goes by that I do not thank Oliver North and President Reagan for what they did to secure my freedom and the freedom of the other hostages,'' Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen also is the subject of North's latest television advertisement, a more emotional piece he said will replace the sex-and-drugs ad.
Campaign aides pitched Jacobsen as a reminder to the public of why people liked North in 1987 - before the ``liberal media and Washington insiders'' started trying to make them forget, according to spokesman Mark Merritt.
Robb framed the endorsement as ``an attempt to take a single example to distort the big picture.''
``And the big picture has very little to do with saving lives,'' Robb said.
``Nobody is quarreling with anything he may have done that really tried to saved lives. What we're quarreling with is everything else he did.''
North was convicted in 1989 of three felonies connected to his Iran-Contra role, though all were later overturned on appeal. He also has been tied to potential profits from Iran-Contra arms sales, a link North disputes.
Levin's wife, Sis, said North's arms-for-hostages deal encouraged captors to take more hostages. Former hostage Terry Anderson has made the same claim.
Robb, despite an ever-intensifying effort to improve his standing through television advertising, has remained stagnant in polls - at 33 percent of the vote - since early September. The only area of the state in which he has a comfortable lead is Northern Virginia.
Coleman's support has increased by only 1 percentage point during the same period.
North, on the other hand, has improved his support from 28 percent to 37 percent since early September.
"The current trend seems to favor North," wrote Coker, president of Mason-Dixon. "Robb's support has been stuck. ... North, despite high negatives, has been able to steadily increase his support."
Coker said Coleman "has the potential to make a late charge" if voters become dissatisfied with Robb and North. But "in order for this to happen," Coker added, voters must first become convinced that Coleman "has a chance to win."
Staff writer David M. Poole contributed to this story.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB