
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994                   TAG: 9411100106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DOLE LED HIM ON, COLEMAN'S FRIENDS SAY

Marshall Coleman always knew politics was a tough game, and in 20 years of campaigning across Virginia he earned a reputation as a tough player.

But as Coleman's independent U.S. Senate campaign shut down Wednesday, some of his friends were whispering privately that Senate GOP leader Bob Dole fed their man's desire to run and then undercut his longshot bid before it could get started.

Dole, who figures to be Senate majority leader when Republicans take control of Congress in January, campaigned repeatedly this fall for Republican nominee Oliver North. But he often appeared less than enthusiastic about North, and discomfited by questions about North's honesty and role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s.

North lost Tuesday to Democratic Sen. Charles Robb. Coleman, with 11 percent of the vote, was a distant third, but some GOP activists were blaming him and his supporters for North's defeat.

Coleman, reached Wednesday at his Washington law office, declined to rehash the campaign. "I wish Bob Dole well," he said.

But other sources said the two men had several conversations in person and by telephone in May and early June, as lifelong Republican Coleman explored an independent challenge to Robb and North.

In the first meeting, a brief encounter outside Dole's Watergate apartment, a grinning Dole greeted Coleman as "Senator!" and asked if he was really going to run, one source said.

Coleman, hoping for and thinking he'd gotten a signal, followed up with at least one phone call to Dole's office. In one chat, the Kansan is said to have assured Coleman that the controversial North would get little help from Republican senators and told him: "Nobody here's for North, except maybe Strom Thurmond.''

In the midst of the discussions, Dole and Sen. John Warner, Coleman's most prominent supporter, traveled to Normandy, France, as part of a Senate delegation observing the 50th anniversary of D-Day. There, Dole voiced what sounded like reservations about North's candidacy and disclosed that he'd soon be meeting with Coleman in person.

The comments triggered protests from other GOP senators, who reportedly told Dole he could not survive as party leader if he did not support Republican candidates exclusively.

Dole and Coleman met on June 8, with Dole explaining that he couldn't actively oppose North but telling Coleman: "I won't say anything to hurt you," the source said. He followed that by meeting with North the next day to deliver an endorsement and a $5,000 contribution from Campaign America, his political action committee.

Dole declined to comment Wednesday.

by CNB