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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995                   TAG: 9504200082
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WAKEFIELD                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN: WE'RE DAMMED - LIKE SHAD

Gov. George Allen took his turn Wednesday at the state's leading spring political gathering to renew a pitch for giving profits from the Virginia lottery to localities.

Allen was guest speaker for this year's Shad Planking, an annual cookout in rural Sussex County to feast on the bony fish and talk about elections.

About 3,500 people turned out to hear Allen compare the dams that have blocked shad from reproducing in Virginia waters to the dams he contended that government has put up against its citizens.

But Allen said his administration is committed to tearing down the government dams, as it has done to ``the failed dam of welfare in Virginia'' and the ``dam of lenient parole.''

He said he would continue to fight ``the federal government dam'' and state taxes and regulations that ``stagnate investments and jobs.''

With all 140 General Assembly seats up for election this year, legislators and would-be lawmakers turned out for the Shad Planking to shake hands and distribute lapel stickers.

But the turnout was a little off from past years. Buddy Savedge, co-chairman of the event for the sponsoring Wakefield Ruritan Club, said many of the 4,000 printed tickets didn't get sold, despite perfect weather with temperatures in the low 80s.

``We don't have any statewide officeholder running this year, and that may well be why some people stayed at home,'' he said.

Among those in the crowd were Sen. John Warner, the senior Republican who faces re-election next year, and Jim Miller, the former Reagan administration budget director who plans to challenge Warner for the GOP nomination.

Both men said they attended to support Republican legislative candidates, not to campaign for themselves. At one point, they stood on opposite sides of the same beer truck, posing for pictures and signing autographs.

The Republican governor, whose legislative package took a beating at this year's General Assembly session, took note of all the legislators at the gathering. He said it was good to see everyone ``in a nice mood.''

by CNB