ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 20, 1996 TAG: 9605200106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: PETER BAKER THE WASHINGTON POST
A MATTER OF DEGREE: John Warner and Jim Miller both say they're conservative, but that's all they agree on.
With less than a month until the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Virginia, incumbent John Warner and challenger Jim Miller haven't met for a formal debate on the issues, and, at this point, they aren't likely to. But if they did, their differences probably would boil down to this:
Me, too. Only more so.
Both favor lower taxes, smaller government, a balanced budget. Both want to protect gun rights and prevent abortion. It's just that Miller argues that he believes it more strongly.
The former federal budget director promises a purely conservative agenda like that of the freshmen who have been driving the GOP Congress. Warner, the three-term senator, considers that approach naive and the goals unachievable; instead, he favors slow change reached through compromise.
Miller wants to outlaw abortion, repeal gun control, scrap the tax code in favor of a single-rate flat tax, abolish Cabinet departments and impose term limits. Warner agrees with many of those goals in theory, but he has voted for taxpayer funding of abortions, supported some gun restrictions, wants to keep some tax deductions, would preserve pared-back government agencies and says he opposes term limits even while voting for them.
Such flexibility is precisely what aggravates so many of the senator's critics. "The best thing you can say about him," Miller said, "is he has no compass."
Warner scoffs at that. "I've watched the missionary-zeal guys around here," he said from his Washington office, "and they're not getting very far."
Warner has been one of Virginia's most popular politicians for 18 years, in part by positioning himself as a moderate. Miller derides him as a "liberal Republican." But many who monitor Congress maintain that Warner's record is more conservative than commonly thought - and has become even more conservative in the last year as it became clear he would be challenged from the right.
In 1992, Warner voted with the pro-abortion rights National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League 50 percent of the time, a level that plummeted to zero in 1995. By contrast, his allegiance to the Christian Coalition's side of important issues shot up from 60 percent when measuring early ``Contract With America'' votes to 100 percent on a later, broader voting score card.
"If you look at John Warner's record, he's been pretty conservative in the past; but if you look at this session, he has really gotten conservative," said Kate Jeffrey, who monitors such things at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "The whole notion of John Warner being a moderate is a real fallacy if you actually look at the votes. ... He's definitely moving to the right this session."
Democrats aren't the only ones who have noticed, and some weren't impressed. "We need someone who's going to vote for pro-family issues six years out of six rather than one year out of six," said Walter Barbee, head of the conservative Family Foundation, based in Fairfax.
For example, Warner has voted to ban certain assault weapons in the past. But he now says he no longer believes such restrictions affect guns that actually are used in crimes, and therefore he probably would vote to repeal the ban.
Miller said Warner has "got religion." But the senator dismissed that notion, saying he always has been a "common-sense conservative."
Said Warner, "Nothing has changed - neither the record nor my goals."
The senator is not the only one who has tiptoed further to the right in the last two years. Miller, who had several posts in the Reagan administration, said when he started his unsuccessful 1994 Senate campaign that although he was "pro-life," he did not favor a constitutional ban on abortion. Within a few months, he began touting his support for such an amendment.
Recently, both men have tried to sharpen their differences in radio ads and speeches.
"The truth is, Jim Miller is not a true Virginia conservative," says a Warner radio ad airing on stations across the state. "John Warner has been fighting to restore conservative values."
At a local GOP convention in suburban Richmond recently, Miller accused Warner of voting with President Clinton 60 percent of the time in 1994, although he did not mention that the figure fell to 25 percent last year. Miller cited what he called a zigzag record of Warner votes on abortion, taxes and guns over three terms.
"No conservative would have voted like John Warner," Miller said. "Just like Bill Clinton, John Warner can turn on a dime when it suits him."
In the final weeks of the campaign, these issues are among the chief battlegrounds for Warner and Miller:
* Taxes. The challenger made a big splash of signing a ``no new taxes'' pledge, which the incumbent dismissed as irresponsible. Miller favored the tax-cutting plan pushed by his longtime friend, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, that was rejected in the Senate in favor of a more moderated package. Warner was among those who voted against the Gramm plan, arguing that reducing the deficit was a higher priority.
Beyond simply trimming tax rates, Miller advocates a dramatic restructuring of the tax code that would eliminate capital gains and inheritance taxes and enact a flat tax like the one advocated by former presidential candidate Steve Forbes.
Warner has pounced on that idea, highlighting the fact that deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable contributions would be eliminated. Miller has since modified his proposal so that taxpayers could choose between two methods to calculate what they owe - either a flat tax without any deductions or the current system with them - and then pay the smaller amount.
* Abortion. Both candidates oppose abortion, but Miller accuses Warner of being inconsistent. Miller points to a dozen votes by the senator in support of taxpayer-financed abortions, including several times that Warner opposed GOP efforts to prevent the District of Columbia from using its own money to help indigent women end pregnancies.
The constitutional amendment Miller supports would ban all abortions except when a mother's life is in danger, allowing no exceptions for rape or incest. Warner favors such exceptions.
* Term limits. Miller supports a 12-year limit on serving in either house of Congress and has vowed not to serve more than two six-year terms even if no restriction is legally imposed. Warner, who will have served twice that long if he wins re-election and finishes his term, opposes any limitation.
In a Senate speech earlier this spring, Warner announced that he would vote for a constitutional amendment enacting term limits so that it could be sent to the states for ratification and a "national referendum" could be held. Then, he said, he would try to persuade the Virginia legislature to reject the plan.
* Guns. Warner boasts that he is a hunter and proudly points to a huge elk head mounted on the wall of his Capitol Hill office. Miller brags that he and his wife own eight guns and regularly practice shooting targets.
Although both oppose controls, Miller favors repealing the assault weapon ban and the Brady act, which mandates a waiting period before handgun purchases - even though Brady provisions do not affect Virginia because of the state's system of instant criminal background checks.
Warner voted for the Brady act and defends it as a reasonable measure that should not detract from an otherwise strong record of supporting Second Amendment rights.
That's not how gun-rights leaders see it. Warner's votes on Brady and other bills led the politically potent National Rifle Association to endorse Miller. "We didn't leave John Warner," said Tanya Metaksa, executive director of the NRA's legislative arm. "John Warner left us."
"You make one mistake with the NRA," Warner responded, "and you're targeted for life."
LENGTH: Long : 139 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Where they stand. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB