ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997               TAG: 9704140048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

ALLEN CHOOSES PAL, ALLY AS NEXT ATTORNEY GENERAL HE'LL SUCCEED CANDIDATE GILMORE

Richard Cullen led the governor's drive to abolish parole and served on other administration commissions.

Gov. George Allen on Friday appointed longtime friend and ally Richard Cullen to succeed Jim Gilmore as attorney general.

Gilmore announced April 3 that he will resign June 11, the day after the Republican primary, to campaign full time for governor. Gilmore is unopposed for the GOP nomination.

Cullen, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, led Allen's drive to abolish parole in 1994 and has served on several other commissions for the Republican governor.

``He shares General Gilmore's and my foundational principals that we have adhered to and has a common sense view that most Virginians have about crime, violence, the proper punishment and honesty,'' Allen said.

The governor and Cullen used the occasion to praise Gilmore.

Cullen said the high morale and sense of family in the attorney general's office will make taking over ``a piece of cake'' and said he would make no changes.

``People will look back with wonder at how so many tremendously important things could have been done in 31/2 years,'' he told Allen and Gilmore.

Allen lauded Gilmore as the state's best attorney general ever and said his departure ``will leave a hole in my heart, a hole in my office.''

Gilmore, who received a long ovation from about 100 staff members at the start of the news conference, said his decision to resign was difficult but necessary. Democrats had said serving as attorney general while also raising money for a gubernatorial campaign would create potential conflicts of interest for Gilmore.

``We can't allow this office to be sullied in any way,'' Gilmore said.

Besides co-chairing Allen's parole abolition commission, Cullen was co-chairman of a citizens' advisory panel on welfare reform and served on criminal sentencing and juvenile justice reform commissions for Allen.

Cullen will bring allies from both sides of the aisle to office.

From 1991 to 1993, while filling the unexpired federal prosecutor's term in Eastern Virginia after an appointment by President Bush, he helped draw up then-Gov. Douglas Wilder's one-handgun-a-month law.

Born in Staunton, Cullen played wide receiver on Furman University's football team and received his law degree from the University of Richmond.

LENGTH: Medium:   57 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ASSOCIATED PRESS. Richard Cullen (left) appears Friday 
          with Jim Gilmore, whom he will replace June 11 when Gilmore resigns 
          as lieutenant governor to concentrate on his gubernatorial 
          campaign.