ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
In less than a month, Virginia Republicans hold a primary election to pick their nominee for the U.S. Senate - incumbent John Warner or challenger Jim Miller.
It's an election that's drawn national attention, because no other sitting senator faces as stiff a challenge from within his own party as Warner does June11.
What's this election about? To hear Miller and his supporters talk about it, the main issues are that Warner is insufficiently conservative and insufficiently loyal to the Republican Party. To hear Warner and his supporters talk about the primary, the main issue is whether it's possible to put principle ahead of party - as Warner says he did in opposing Oliver North in 1994 - and still survive politically.
The campaign rhetoric has gotten personal, too. Miller has accused Warner of being an "establishment elitist" who dines "at the elegant Palm Restaurant in Washington, D.C., with liberal 'journalist' Barbara Walters." Warner has fired back that Miller is a carpetbagger who hasn't lived in the state very long.
Political analysts and activists from all sides see it as part of an ideological conflict within the Republican Party:
``If you want to pick one race that showcases the divisions between the party factions on the Republican side, you could hardly find a better one than the Warner-Miller race,'' says University of Virginia political analyst Mark Rozell. "What I've heard from a number of moderate Republicans is this is the test case. If they can't take back the party with John Warner as the nominee, then they've lost the party.''
``Obviously, the Miller-Warner race is serving as a sort of exemplar of a broader struggle in the party, [pitting] the emerging post-Reagan, grass-roots, conservative coalition versus a kind of pre-Reagan, Old-Guard party establishment,'' agrees Ralph Reed, executive director of the Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition. ``The Miller-Warner race is clearly going to serve as a barometer of that tension.''
But what do you, the voters, think this election should be about - keeping in mind that, because Virginia doesn't register voters by party, every registered voter is eligible to cast a ballot in the primary? What issues would you like to see the candidates addressing? Have a question for Warner and Miller? Let us know so we can follow up - and make sure they talk about the issues that are on your mind.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: What do you think? color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB