Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 7, 1994 TAG: 9411070022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He evidently just didn't promise to do it all the time.
Warner and Coleman were scheduled to campaign together on Roanoke's City Market last week. But whenever Coleman turned around, Warner was gone - ambling off into whatever shop caught his fancy.
At one point, Coleman and his entourage tracked down Warner in the Orvis store, where Virginia's senior senator was in the process of buying two pairs of boxer shorts.
One red, one blue, for those who are interested in such things.
Nevertheless, Warner did lead Coleman to his biggest crowd of the day. Warner caught wind of a reception for docents taking place at the Art Museum of Western Virginia. Next thing anyone knew, there was an uninvited Coleman working the crowd - and Warner calling the group to attention.
"We're not here to talk politics," Warner boomed. Instead, he declared, he wanted to praise the museum. "A nation is remembered by its arts, its letters, its contributions to music, not its politicians." Then he turned to Coleman and asked: "Do you have anything to add?"
Coleman, for once, was caught speechless.
Warner, by the way, helped himself to the dessert table. He sent an aide to fetch a slice of pumpkin pie. "With lots of whipped cream," the aide noted.
Shake, rattle and roll
What's the most visible difference between Democrats and Republicans?
It's not their ideology, or even the color of their signs. It's that Republicans, at least the Virginia variety, devote a whole lot more time and energy to trying to rattle the other side.
Take last week's rallies in Roanoke for Oliver North and Charles Robb. Democrats steered clear of the North event. But a clutch of sign-waving young Republicans was posted outside the Robb rally, chanting "Ol-lie! Ol-lie!" and blasting Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" from a boombox - loud enough to be heard inside Robb's headquarters.
Why? "Because we could," chuckles Trixie Averill, a GOP activist from Roanoke County who chaperoned the event. "We had the volunteers."
She says a Democratic neighbor saw her demonstrating and asked, "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Nope," Averill replied.
That wasn't all. Remember how Roanoke Mayor David Bowers tried to disparage the size of the crowd at the North event, claiming - incorrectly - that most of those in attendance were bused in from Lynchburg?
When Roger Jarrell, a Republican field worker based in Roanoke, found out about Bowers' comments, he called the mayor at home and left a caustic message on his answering machine - strongly suggesting that, in the future, Bowers get his facts straight.
Automatic for the senator
Robb got an unexpected endorsement last week - from the rock group R.E.M.
Campaign workers at Robb's McLean headquarters opened the mail to discover contributions from the Georgia-based band's four members - $1,000 apiece from singer Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills (the maximum allowed by federal law), $500 each from guitarist Peter Buck and drummer Bill Berry.
An uncharacteristically hip Robb campaign promptly faxed out a press release headlined "Automatic for the Senator," a play on a recent R.E.M. album called "Automatic for the People."
R.E.M. has a history of political activism; the band was a leader in the 1992 "Rock the Vote" campaign and the push for the motor-voter registration bill.
Other, more cynical, observers would note another similarity between Robb and R.E.M.: They both have a tendency toward obtuseness, Stipe in his lyrics, Robb in his campaign speeches.
Generation gap
In the final round of mock elections before the real thing begins, North continued his unimpeded march across Virginia's college campuses. The last three schools to weigh in:
Liberty University: North 90 percent, Robb 5 percent, Coleman 5 percent.
Virginia Tech: North 67 percent, Robb 23 percent, Coleman 10 percent.
James Madison University: North 63 percent, Robb 27 percent, Coleman 8 percent.
Robb did claim one mock victory, though, that may - or may not - be a harbinger of things to come on Tuesday. In a mock election at the Friendship Manor retirement community in Roanoke, the 147 independent living residents attending the monthly resident appreciation breakfast cast their ballots as follows: Robb 48 percent, North 29 percent, Coleman 23 percent.
A Friendship Manor spokesman pointed out that was a switch from the group's October breakfast. Then, a show of hands indicated "a virtual tie."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB