Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505230041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
Each chapter of the organization founded by Texas billionaire Ross Perot is voting on the same question, with the results to be considered at a national convention in August in Dallas.
About 50 people attended the Virginia convention Saturday at a Lynchburg hotel. Russell Verney, national executive director of United We Stand, said he was pleased with the turnout, adding that those who attended are leaders with large grass-roots followings.
``The political battleground of the 1996 presidential election is sitting in this room,'' Verney said.
On the political party question, 52 percent of Virginia convention-goers voted for forming a party, 34 percent voted against, and 14 percent were undecided. All of the nonmembers present - and there were only a few - voted against forming a party.
Verney said United We Stand cannot be ignored in the next presidential election.
``Whoever wants to be president in 1996 has to appeal to the 20 million votes Ross Perot got,'' he said.
Verney said the organization's members will have to take into consideration the opinions of those who say another Perot candidacy would assure the re-election of President Clinton - ``A lot of people's worst nightmare.''
But he said Perot's candidacy in 1992 had the effect of denying Clinton a landslide, because exit polls showed Perot's votes would have been split evenly between Clinton and President Bush.
Virginia Secretary of Administration Michael E. Thomas addressed the convention, discussing Gov. George Allen's efforts to push for initiative and referendum in the last General Assembly session. Measures pushed by Allen were killed in House of Delegates and Senate committees.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB