Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAVID POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With his political fate in the balance, U.S. Sen. Charles Robb slipped away to his Capitol Hill office for several hours Tuesday afternoon to catch up on Senate paperwork.
``It's out of my hands now,'' said Robb, who appeared exhausted, yet at peace with himself. ``I'm confident that we have done everything that we can do, everything we ought to do.
``We were going to run it very much as a traditional campaign. We've done that - for better or for worse - according to my schedule.''
Until the final weeks of the campaign, Robb often seemed a mere bystander to charismatic Republican Oliver North. Democrats will forever debate whether Robb was an underappreciated strategist with impeccable timing or an extraordinarily lucky guy who won in spite of himself.
It made no difference Tuesday night to the 500 Democrats who stomped, shouted and screamed as Robb delivered his victory speech in the ballroom of the Tysons Corner Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
``His timing was excellent,'' said Lt. Gov. Don Beyer. ``Jefferson suggested you can always trust the voters. We did, and they came through.''
Robb's big day began shortly after sunrise. He had been scheduled to vote at 6:30 a.m. at Langley High School in McLean, but aides delayed his arrival by 20 minutes to avoid independent Marshall Coleman, who showed up to get some exposure from the 10 television crews waiting for Robb. Only four TV crews had turned up at Coleman's home precinct nearby.
Robb voted along with his wife, Lynda, and his two oldest daughters.
``I'm absolutely certain that I just got one vote,'' Robb quipped, ``and I have reasonably high expectations to having received three more.''
The Robb family then went separate ways, Lynda and daughters to greet voters at local precincts, Robb to his campaign office in a suburban shopping center for several drive-time radio interviews.
It was too early to tell whether the sunny weather would herald a heavy turnout, so campaign manager Susan Platt sought guidance from the stars.
``Check out Robb's horoscope,'' she exclaimed, bursting into the cubicle of press secretary Bert Rohrer. ``He's a Cancer.''
Rohrer sucked on an unfiltered Camel and reached through the clutter on his desk for The Washington Post. He read aloud: ``Previous feeling of being left out vanishes. People comment, `You seem so vital!' Focus on independence, originality, being vulnerable to love.''
To Platt, it was a sign of good things to come.
At his office, Robb appeared relaxed, despite his attire of starched white dress shirt, conservative burgundy tie, pin-striped slacks and black wingtips.
He credited his final burst of momentum to three factors, none of which were his own doing. He cited North, for committing gaffes nearly every time he got off script; Nancy Reagan, for her denunciation of North as a liar; and former Gov. Douglas Wilder, for following through on his endorsement by energizing black Virginians.
Robb even talked briefly about the personal tribulations that have dogged him for six years and his hope that a victory would offer the possibility of political redemption.
``I think it will put it behind us,'' he said.
Robb interrupted the interview to take a call from an aide who had an up-to-the-minute report from a predominantly black precinct in Newport News. In last year's gubernatorial race, the precinct recorded 210 voters by mid-afternoon. This year, the total was 280 - and rising.
Susan Platt dashed from the room. Cheers erupted, and the mood of the throughout the office turned downright giddy.
Still on the phone, Robb warned his aide that much work still needed to be done.
``That was 30 seconds ago,'' Robb said. ``What are you going to do for me in the next 30 seconds?''
For his own part, Robb planted himself behind his Senate desk, put on his bifocals and started to go through the paperwork that had piled up while he was on the campaign trail.
He went through his tentative schedule for the next week, checking off events he wanted to attend. (Marine Corps anniversary - yes; his daughter's field hockey playoff game - definitely). He made a few calls on behalf of a Hampton Roads company having regulatory problems shipping fish to Europe. He read briefing papers on the upcoming ``lame duck'' session on international trade.
``It's very mundane stuff, but I'm behind in it,'' he told a trio of reporters ushered into his office for a few minutes. ``I haven't been in the office for more than an hour in the last couple of weeks.''
Just another day at the office for Robb?
``It gives him something to do,'' explained his chief of staff, Thomas Lehner. ``You have to pass the time. But it's also something that needs to be done.''
Bone-tired from three weeks of campaigning, Robb had the calmness of a marathoner who had the finish line in sight.
``At some point, I may find that I am mortal like the rest of the folks and catch up for a little bit for what may be a long and perhaps somewhat draining event emotionally - no matter how it comes out.''
Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Memo: NOTE: below