Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507180011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You can hear the governor speak, watch him eat, maybe shake his hand or bend his ear.
You and the kids can even get your picture taken with him - for $1,000 and the right political connections.
Gov. George Allen begins the second half of a two-week trans-commonwealth Winnebago tour today, with a series of stops that will begin in Tysons Corner and take him to Richlands by week's end.
Allen bills the tour as a mobile, take-it-to-the-people sort of governing - and he rails at his opponents who suggest otherwise.
``Some of the Democrats will whine and groan about everything I do,'' Allen said Thursday in Lynchburg after a meeting with flood relief workers.
``As I said at the outset: The point is, I want to bring the governor's office to the people of Virginia.''
Yet while Allen's official schedule abounds with town tours, ribbon cuttings and hand shakings, his private schedule is equally replete with big-ticket, partisan fund-raisers.
Nearly every day, Allen is featured in a lunch or dinner reception sponsored by Republican General Assembly candidates. Many ask for $100 or more for the chance to see the governor in the Republican flesh.
For instance, an event Friday in Hampton, for House of Delegates candidate James Shoemaker, asked for between $100 and $300 to meet the governor. A dinner for Republican Del. Barnes Kidd in Smyth County Wednesday night offers four tickets and a ``photo op'' with Allen for $1,000.
Some fund-raisers were planned before the official events now scheduled for the same day. Still, Allen said politics is incidental to the rest of his privately financed statewide tour.
``There's no better way to see how people across the state feel about the government - and that's what we're doing,'' he said. ``If some of the stops are for other things, well, then that's that.
"Doing fund-raisers for legislators is nothing new.''
For certain. To rookie challengers, a gubernatorial elbow-rubbing can be among their most profitable moneymakers. Raising cash by latching on to a high-profile political draw, inviting him or her for dinner, then selling tickets may be one of the most pervasive techniques on the American stump.
Shoemaker said he hopes to clear about $7,000 from his event with Allen - much of it from constituents willing to pay to meet the governor.
``For a campaign at this stage, it provides a huge boost - and not just a financial one,'' said Shoemaker, who is challenging Democratic Del. Vincent Behm Jr. ``It provides a challenger with a great deal of credibility to the campaign.''
Even Allen's opponents aren't so pious as to criticize much.
``I am neither shocked nor offended,'' said Del. Jay DeBoer, D-Petersburg. ``The governor is going to campaign for his candidates. Everyone knows that.
``But why not be up-front about it?''
Allen's aides have never hidden the fact that they consider his chummy, approachable style to be valuable political capital. And, politics or not, they like to spread it around.
Last week, after a kickoff in Poquoson, Allen visited the Eastern Shore, Northern Neck, Lynchburg and Southside. A typical schedule: road show by day, moneymaking at night.
Like Thursday. He presented an economic development check to Georgia Pacific officials in Big Island in Bedford County, then rolled up his sleeves and drove to Lynchburg for a fat-chewing lunch stop at Country Cookin'.
Then he visited the local Federal Emergency Management Agency office, where he piloted the cowboy boots into an Inter-agency Hazard Mitigation Team Meeting and said ``howdy.''
``Governor, there is another tropical depression out there,'' a state relief worker warned.
``You mean one in the ocean, right?'' Allen grinned. ``You're not talking about the ozone, or something?''
In front of the Appomattox Court House, where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army in 1865, Allen threw in a lip of tobacco, shook every sweaty hand in sight and talked Washington Redskins with the out-of-towners. And he gave the requisite speech, too.
``This is where they stopped fighting,'' he said through a cloud of gnats. ``This is where they left for home, when there was no reason to continue the devastation, the destruction of that awful war.'' Then he wrinkled his nose, as if he were still a little troubled about that whole Civil War incident.
After a day on the road, the governor's official schedule was clear. He and his entourage left Appomattox for Farmville. ``They're having a reception there,'' he said. ``We're going to stop by.'' In other words, the private fund-raising part of the day was about to begin.
``I think this is an important part of being governor - getting around the state and listening to people,'' Allen said before leaving.
``Some people will criticize some of it, but they'd do that anyway.''
by CNB