Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Coleman, running a distant third in most polls and combating the perception that Virginians would be throwing away their vote if they cast it for him, said voters are tired of what he called the "private war" between Democrat Charles Robb and Republican Oliver North.
"The trends are in my direction," Coleman said as he campaigned on the Roanoke City Market. "Voters would like for someone to talk about the issues. People are hungry for information."
So Coleman said he's going to spend the next two weeks releasing a series of position papers that spell out his stands.
Tuesday, his issue was the federal budget; and Coleman outlined a series of typical conservative positions: He wants to cut the capital gains tax in half, expand the eligibility for individual retirement accounts and increase the child tax credit from $300 per dependent to $500.
"I am making the case that I am the best-qualified candidate," he said.
But in keeping with his passive campaign strategy, which is counting on Robb and North to destroy each other, Coleman declined to say much about either one. "I think the public has taken the measure of those two men," he said.
Meanwhile, with Washington's Watergate Hotel as a backdrop, two former Republican administration officials said that North breached the Constitution during Iran-Contra, and they likened the arms-for-hostages scandal to Watergate.
Campaigning in Richmond, North said he will make President Clinton's agenda the focus of the final two weeks of his close race to unseat Robb. North began airing a television ad Monday night that highlights Robb's record of supporting the White House 95 percent of the time.
The election is ``clearly one in which the Constitution is being challenged by a candidate who violated that law, admitted he violated those laws and then admitted that he lied to cover it up,'' said William Colby, CIA director under President Ford from 1973-1976. ``That to me discredits him as a candidate.''
Former Attorney General Elliott Richardson said accountability of public officials was the sin in both Iran-Contra and Watergate a decade earlier.
``Accountability is the very foundation upon which our system rests,'' he said at a news conference with Colby and Robb. ``The evil of Watergate was the persistent effort to escape accountability.''
North's activities actually were worse than those of Nixon administration officials, because North had a ``deliberate plan to evade accountability to Congress,'' Richardson said.
North brushed off the criticism from ``Washington insiders.''
``I think every time a liberal comes out and attacks me, it's a good reason for the people of Virginia to vote for me,'' North said as he shook hands outside a Philip Morris tobacco plant.
Robb said the endorsements from Colby and Richardson carry special weight because both men are Republicans.
``Their willingness to stand up and be counted on this occasion as a matter of principle means a great deal to me,'' Robb said.
Coleman had hoped to spend all day campaigning in Western Virginia with U.S. Sen. John Warner - the first time they would have appeared together in this region of the state.
But Warner's driver took him to the wrong airport in Northern Virginia on Tuesday morning - he went to National, when Coleman was catching a commercial flight out of Dulles - so Warner missed the morning's appearances in Roanoke.
Warner joined Coleman later in the day in Lynchburg.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB