Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310114
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Adding loans and donations, Cupp took in $125,111 this month, compared with Marye's $47,968 total, counting three post-deadline checks from political action committees.
Cupp lent his campaign another $64,000 this month, for a total of $84,000. The money came from the sale of properties this year, Cupp said.
He said the loans were necessary, "since I've got to be able to fight the big PAC-man."
Marye reported receiving 26 PAC and corporate donations this month, including $17,250 in two days late last week from the Senate Democratic Caucus and two other PACs.
Cupp's other major donations came in the form of $30,000 in media time from the governor's PAC, the Campaign for Honest Change, and $9,477 in media consulting from the Joint Republican Caucus. Jerry Parker, a Richmond investment manager, also chipped in $10,000.
Cupp's big payoff helped him outspend Marye more than 2-to-1 in October, primarily to pay for television commercials: $123,936 for Cupp to $48,236 for the incumbent.
Cupp reported raising $107,985 so far and spending $168,677. He also paid back $20,000 in earlier loans, leaving him with outstanding loans of $64,000. He had $3,308 left to spend as of Wednesday.
Marye reported $106,676 raised, $98,297 spent and $8,379 left by then. But he also filed a special large-contributions report for the $17,250 donated from PACs on Thursday and Friday, right after the financial reporting deadline.
Environmentalists rap Smithfield gift
BLACKSBURG - Two environmental groups Monday called on Gov. George Allen and General Assembly candidates he's helped fund - including Blacksburg state Senate candidate Pat Cupp - to give the controversial $100,000 Smithfield Foods' political contribution to the environmental protection cause.
The Smithfield donation to the Campaign for Honest Change, as Allen's political action committee is known, raised eyebrows last week because the meatpacking firm is under investigation by the administration for polluting a Tidewater river with animal waste.
Allen administration officials have said Smithfield Foods is receiving no special treatment and called the controversy nothing more than a "manipulative political attack" by Democrats.
The New River Valley chapter of the Sierra Club and the Friends of the Rivers of Virginia called on the governor to turn the money over "to an environmental protection nonprofit organization, such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation."
Peggy Allen, with the Sierra Club, said the governor's acceptance of the contribution "makes a mockery of his own charges against Mary Sue Terry two years ago. Does the governor have separate standards of ethics, one for himself and another for his opponents?" she asked.
In 1993, the governor ran TV ads criticizing Terry, whom he defeated, for accepting $500 from the owner of a polluting landfill in Alleghany County.
"We challenge Pat Cupp and other local Republican candidates to pressure the governor to return this tainted money," Peggy Allen said.
Rick Roth, a board member of the statewide rivers' organization, said the groups weren't singling out Cupp. "We're certainly not partisan organizations, not pro-Democrat or pro-Republican," Roth said.
Yet Cupp dismissed the news conference as just more rhetoric from Democrats trying to help his opponent, state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville.
"The election's on ideas and issues and what we can do to help the state," Cupp said. "We should be talking about that, not this."
Cupp had no comment on Smithfield donation itself. "I haven't studied it. I don't talk about things I haven't studied," he said. "I have a lot of confidence in the governor, and I'm sure he's acted appropriately."
Newly filed campaign finance reports show Cupp received $30,000 in media time from the Campaign for Honest Change this month, making it one of his largest campaign contributions.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: ***CORRECTION***