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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995                   TAG: 9504200091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

LUGAR ANNOUNCES RUN FOR REPUBLICAN NOMINATION

Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana announced his candidacy Wednesday for the Republican presidential nomination, trying to make a virtue of his earnest but colorless manner by quoting from the Boy Scout oath and depicting himself as a leader of unblemished character.

As the centerpiece of his campaign, Lugar put forward his plan to dismantle the Internal Revenue Service and replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax. And, reflecting his foreign policy bent during his four terms in the Senate, he vowed to emphasize international affairs more than the other candidates.

But most of all, Lugar seemed intent on overcoming his evident handicaps as a presidential candidate.

Although he has established himself as the Republicans' leading foreign policy spokesman and is well-respected within Washington, he is little known outside the capital and lacks the money and organization of his major rivals.

So, he advanced himself as the candidate of substance and straight talk over glitz and ``pandering to this group and that.''

Lugar, 63, opened his speech with a moment of silence for the people killed Wednesday morning in the bombing in Oklahoma City.

``My candidacy,'' he said, ``is grounded on faith that Americans care deeply about their country - faith that Americans know that the presidency is not entertainment, faith that Americans are not only willing but eager to support a presidential candidate who offers straight talk and serious action on the issues that affect their lives and their children's futures.''

Lugar spoke of reinvigorating the nation's moral character and further encouraged the Boy Scout, choirboy image that caught on when he first ran for mayor of Indianapolis at the age of 34.

``I have been a lay minister in the Methodist church,'' he said. Gently broaching his opposition to abortion, he went on: ``I believe in the sanctity of life. I was an Eagle Scout, and I pledged, `On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country.'''

Then, delicately yet unmistakably, Lugar sought to differentiate himself from President Clinton, a fellow Rhodes Scholar who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War.

``As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford,'' he said, ``I went to the American Embassy in London and enlisted in the United States Navy.''

Lugar served in the Navy during peacetime, from 1957 to 1960. Lugar vowed to defy pundits who say that his prospects for winning the nomination are remote.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB