Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410210055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ALEXANDRAI LENGTH: Medium
The GOP candidate pounced gleefully on a newspaper report of a Clinton-Wilder meeting at the White House. The Washington Times quoted Democratic sources as saying Clinton urged Wilder to back Robb and also discussed Wilder's interest in a roving ambassadorship in Africa.
North, with former federal prosecutor Henry Hudson alongside, noted that the offer of any federal job in exchange for political help would be illegal. Violations carry a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to a year in jail.
"If these allegations are true, then it's a disgrace that the president, the vice president and a United States senator would stoop to this kind of activity," North said. He sent U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno a letter requesting an investigation by the Justice Department's election crimes unit.
Clinton and Robb are to attend a Democratic Party dinner in Alexandria tonight, and Wilder is invited. Some state Democrats have lobbied Wilder to use the event - which is called the Kennedy-King dinner - to endorse Robb and bury the hatchet in their longtime feud.
Wilder, who could not be reached Thursday, has not announced his plans. He dropped his independent Senate candidacy last month, citing fund-raising difficulties and his poor showing in opinion polls.
The White House confirmed the Clinton-Wilder conversation but insisted the former governor neither sought nor was offered a job. "This was a private meeting," said spokeswoman Ginny Terzano. "They discussed many issues. In large part, they discussed the midterm elections and the Virginia Senate race. That's not unusual."
Vice President Al Gore did not attend the Clinton-Wilder meeting. He met with Wilder in July, while the ex-governor still was in the Senate contest, but both men have said no jobs were discussed.
Robb, campaigning Thursday in Portsmouth, said stories of any deal are ``simply and categorically untrue.'' He accused North of trying to spin an unsubstantiated story into a campaign scandal.
``Lack of a factual basis has not stopped his campaign before, and it hasn't stopped Mr. North before,'' Robb said.
Robb agreed that "any attempted linkage" between a Wilder endorsement and a federal job for Wilder "would not be proper." He added that "I don't think anyone on either side of that meeting had any intention of doing that."
Support from Wilder could be critical to Robb's hopes of generating a substantial black turnout on Nov. 8. Most of the black vote generally goes to Democrats, but some in Robb's camp worry that his disputes with Wilder have sapped enthusiasm for him in the black community.
Relations between the two men have been strained, at best, for almost a decade, and Wilder earlier this year called Robb unfit for the Senate. A key issue between them is the involvement of Robb staffers in efforts to embarrass Wilder by giving reporters the transcript of an illegally wiretapped phone call Wilder made in 1988.
Three Robb aides were convicted of minor criminal charges in that case and left his staff. Robb was the subject of a lengthy investigation, but grand jurors declined to indict him.
North said Thursday that if true, the allegations of a Clinton offer to Wilder are "insulting to the integrity of former Gov. Wilder [and] of the people of Virginia. ... That kind of politics may work in Arkansas, but in this, the cradle of democracy, we don't want it."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB