Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Robb, meantime, appeared with abortion-rights activists in Northern Virginia, and independent Marshall Coleman issued his campaign reform plan in a speech at Norfolk State University.
North attacked Democrat Robb's votes this year to confirm Rosemary Barkett for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and H. Lee Sarokin for the 3rd Circuit appeals court.
The Republican challenger said both judges have supported appeals by convicted murderers.
``Chuck Robb talks tough about crime, but he's really soft on crime,'' North said at a news conference.
Robb called North's comments ``incredible.''
``I've always had a record very tough on crime,'' he said at his campaign headquarters in Northern Virginia.
Robb said both judges were endorsed by their senators and police organizations in their states and received the highest rating of the American Bar Association.
Asked about his Iran-Contra felony convictions that were thrown out in 1990 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., North said his case differed from those handled by Barkett and Sarokin.
``We're talking about violent crime,'' North said. ``Judges Sarokin and Barkett, both of whom Chuck Robb voted for, are in favor of releasing perpetrators of violent crimes.''
A federal jury convicted North of aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress, shredding official documents and taking an illegal gratuity. But the appeals court said his trial had been tainted by testimony North gave Congress under immunity.
Outside North's news conference, state Democratic Party spokeswoman Gail Nardi handed out copies of the jury's form marked with guilty verdicts and a police photo of a grim-faced North taken after his arrest.
``It's not only hypocritical, it's hilarious,'' she said of North's comments on the judges. ``A jury of his peers convicted him of three felonies. He got the benefit of the Constitution that he is railing against today.''
While North was talking about judges, Robb moved to the subject of abortion Wednesday, and for a change shifted his sights away from North and onto Coleman.
Abortion-rights advocates appearing at a news conference with Robb argued that Coleman is not trustworthy.
"He is one of this campaign season's `great pretenders' who is trying to pull the wool over voters' eyes by suggesting he is pro-choice despite his anti-choice history," said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
The news conference underscored Robb's concerns that some mainstream Republicans put off by North's conservative agenda may turn to Coleman in the final 13 days before the election.
Recent polls show Robb and North locked in a dead heat, with Coleman a distant third with less than 20 percent of the vote.
Michelman said that Robb is the only candidate with a chance to defeat North, and that "voting for Marshall Coleman is like voting for Oliver North."
"The fact is that a vote for Marshall Coleman is a vote for Marshall Coleman," responded Coleman spokesman Anson Franklin. "It's a vote to break away from two tainted candidates with a tainted past."
Coleman took a progressive stand on abortion early in his political career, then moved to the right to court the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party in his campaigns for governor in 1981 and 1989. He now says he personally opposes abortion but would leave the decision to women.
Robb supports the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, which allows states to regulate abortion.
North would outlaw abortion except in cases of rape and incest.
"Oliver North is public enemy No.1 for American women during this election cycle," Michelman said. "There is no doubt that Oliver North would stand in the U.S. Senate with Jesse Helms [R-N.C.] as commanding officers in the battle to turn back the clock on American women."
North has dismissed NARRAL as a fringe leftist organization.
Coleman, appearing in Norfolk, said the North/Robb brawling suits him fine. Though he would rule out any attacks of his own before Election Day, he stumped Wednesday repeating his insistence that he is the only candidate running on the issues.
Coleman spent much of the day distributing his two-page position paper on campaign and ethics reforms.
He called for limiting the amount candidates can collect from outside their home state and proposed limits on publicly funded congressional mail and on campaign money carried over from one election to the next. He also endorsed term limits and making contributions tax deductible, and called for a ban on gifts from lobbyists.
Staff writer David M. Poole and Robert Little of Landmark News Service contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.