ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606100039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MCLEAN
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE AND ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITERS
Hoping a picture is worth a few thousand votes, U.S. Sen. John Warner mugged in front of television cameras Saturday with Bob Dole and Colin Powell and invited all their fans to support him in Tuesday's Republican primary.
"I urge all Virginians that have the same goals that the three of us share to vote for me," Warner said, standing between the two icons outside the posh Victorian home of Ken Duberstein, a former chief of staff for Ronald Reagan.
The event was the piece de resistance for Warner in his feisty bid for renomination against Jim Miller, a former federal budget director. Warner has been trying to convince voters that his clout from 18 years in the Senate is reason enough to keep him in office.
Dole and Powell stressed Warner's experience as the headliners at a fund-raiser that attracted 400 people and raised $200,000 for the Warner campaign.
"There's no doubt in my mind," said Dole, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, "if someone's doing the job, they have demonstrated they can do the job, they have seniority and they can provide leadership to their state as John's providing leadership for Virginia, that that person should be re-elected."
Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he already voted for Warner by absentee ballot. "I'm pleased to be here," he told at least three dozen reporters and photographers gathered on Duberstein's lawn. "I've been a friend of Senator Warner for many years."
Warner was a side show to most of the reporters, who wanted to know whether Dole and Powell's joint appearance suggested that the retired general would join the Republican national ticket as the candidate for vice president.
Both men revealed little about their conversation at the fund-raiser. "We just dropped in at the same time," Dole said. "I said hello, and he said hello."
Powell added, "The senator {Dole} and I will be having many conversations in the months ahead." And Warner, not wanting his endorsement overlooked in high-stakes presidential speculation, quickly ended the news conference.
Miller was unimpressed by his opponent's grand day.
"You've never in the history of the United States seen a senator not endorse another member of the club," he said during a campaign stop Saturday morning. "And I don't think you'll find Colin Powell say anything negative about me. When I'm in the Senate, I'm sure they'll be happy to work with me."
Dole acknowledged that he has "no quarrel" with Miller. He and Powell said their endorsements were based on their long, personal friendships with Warner and their trust in him.
Warner and Miller spent their final Saturday of the campaign stumping the Northern Virginia festival circuit, with a Republican convention and a few private appearances thrown in. They dedicated most of the day to shaking hands and wiping sweat, tailed by their customary entourages and flocks of children trained to hold signs in front of television cameras.
Twice, the two candidates came within a few dozen yards of each other, only to part without so much as eye contact, shaking their heads and grumbling about the other's campaign tactics.
"He sits in McLean in a million-dollar house, then he jumps into a red pickup and tries to impersonate Bubba," Warner said Saturday morning, in khakis and blue blazer under a hospitality tent at the 11th District Republican convention. "It's become kind of comical, really."
"He's a guy who married wealth then married wealth again, and he's complaining about me?'' Miller responded minutes later, referring to Warner's two former wives, heiress Catherine Mellon and actress Elizabeth Taylor.
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