Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE, RON BROWN AND DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Farris, who unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1993, has agreed to serve as a national co-chairman of Buchanan's campaign. In a letter released by the presidential candidate, Farris praised Buchanan for his tough stands against taxes and abortion rights.
``Pat Buchanan is alone in saying, `Sure we can do a better job with the economy, but it's also the family, it's also the unborn, and it's also the sovereignty of the United States,'' Farris said.
Buchanan has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would outlaw most abortions.
In the letter, Farris dismissed Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, the GOP presidential frontrunner, as not ``a serious option for the vast majority of conservative Republicans.''
Doug Domenech, an adviser to Farris, explained: ``We don't feel that Dole has ever been a true conservative. He's talking like one now, but we feel he's following a Nixonian strategy of running as a conservative in the primaries and then repositioning himself in the general election.''
Farris complained that another GOP presidential candidate - Sen. Phil Gramm - has not been staunch in his opposition to abortion and ``has no chance of beating Bob Dole.''
Farris is perhaps the nation's foremost defender of the home-schooling movement. In recent years, he has helped attract thousands of mostly evangelical followers to state coventions to nominate conservative Republican candidates.
Domenech said Farris will take an active role in helping Buchanan win delegates to the Republican national convention next year.
Young Republicans back Buchanan
Speaking of Pat Buchanan, if it were up to Virginia's Young Republicans, he'd be the party's nominee for president next year.
At the Young Republicans' recent state convention in Manassas, a straw poll of the 329 delegates showed 58 percent backed Buchanan. Bob Dole came in second with 11 percent; Phil Gramm was third, at just a shade under 11 percent.
Standing up for Warner
The decision by Botetourt County Republicans who attended a recent mass meeting to denounce U.S. Sen. John Warner as a "traitor" to his party was out of step with the feelings of most county Republicans, a county supervisor said Tuesday.
John Shiflett, who in 1993 was the first Republican elected from the Buchanan District in 50 years, said the vote came from a "radical" element.
The resolution was proposed to express displeasure with Warner for not supporting Republican nominee Oliver North in last year's U.S. Senate election. Democratic Sen. Charles Robb defeated North. Warner backed independent candidate Marshall Coleman.
"I think it is a bad reflection on Botetourt County," said Shiflett, who was unable to attend the mass meeting because of the death of his mother.
"There were 27 people who voted for that resolution," he said. "They do not speak for a majority of the Republicans in the county. The Republicans I talk to are mad as hell."
Shiflett said the people who voted to denounce Warner haven't heard about the positive things he's done for the county.
Shiflett said Warner last week was working on behalf of the county with an industrial prospect. In the aftermath of the 1985 flood, Warner walked muddy streets of Buchanan and was instrumental in getting federal aid for the flood-ravaged community.
"This county will support John Warner," he said. "The message that came out of the mass meeting didn't mean a thing."
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POLITICS
by CNB