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

DATE: MONDAY, November 13, 1995                   TAG: 9511140035
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

GOP CAUCUS ADMITS EFFORT TO INJURE COURIC CAMPAIGN

The Joint Republican Caucus has admitted trying to undermine Emily Couric's state Senate campaign by mailing 6,000 postcards urging Democrats to vote for an independent candidate.

Democrats and a political analyst criticized the scheme as a dirty campaign trick, and even the head of the state Republican Party said he found the move distasteful.

The executive director of the GOP caucus, Scott Leake, argued that the tactic is nothing new and no laws were broken.

Couric, a Charlottesville Democrat and sister of NBC ``Today Show'' host Katie Couric, defeated Republican Sen. Edgar Robb 50 percent to 45 percent in Tuesday's election. Independent Donal Day received 4 percent of the vote, and another independent polled 1 percent.

The postcards urging Democrats to vote for Day were mailed the weekend before the election.

Leake said the card was designed to ``draw Democrat votes to Donal Day - take them away from Emily Couric. ..."

- Associated Press

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB