THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994 TAG: 9406280348
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
DATELINE: 940628 LENGTH: Medium
In Lynchburg on Thursday, the governor made it clear he isn't among Republicans clamoring for U.S. Sen. John Warner to be thrown out of the GOP for supporting independent senatorial candidate J. Marshall Coleman.
{REST} On June 3, GOP convention delegates, after nominating Oliver North for the U.S. Senate, called on Warner to back him. Future party support for Warner hinged on his conduct this year, they said.
But Allen, who supports North, told high school seniors at Boys State that the GOP is a diverse party with room for differing opinions.
``I don't think we should be throwing anyone out of the party,'' Allen said.
On national and state levels, GOP leaders keep saying it is ``a big tent,'' but the persisting image is of party zealots attempting to pitch dissenters through the canvas.
It is, to put it mildly, an exclusionary policy, scarcely one on which to try to expand a party.
In aiming to toss out Warner, now the most popular major office holder in Virginia, his detractors don't realize they are alienating voters who concur with Warner's assessment that North, because of his role in the Iran Contra scandal, is unfit for the U.S. Senate.
Allen noted that he disagreed with Warner about North and about Mike Farris, the GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor last year, but he said, ``I think John Warner is doing a great job for us in the U.S. Senate.''
Warner's voting record on issues favored by the Christian Coalition was, by the Coalition's own reckoning, 79 percent in 1993, Warner noted Monday.
``Not only have I not attacked them, I have voted strongly in favor of their issues for 16 years,'' Warner said, ``and that voting record should speak louder than what anybody else might be saying.
``Where I find fault is only with some of the top leaders, not with the rank and file for whom I've shown support throughout my Senate career and whom I respect.''
National attention on the race will be heightened tonight when Larry King Live hosts at 9 p.m. on CNN a 90-minute debate with Coleman, North, U.S. Sen. Charles Robb, and former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder.
The results may help shape the format for other debates. North last week balked at first at appearing with the three other candidates before the Virginia State Bar Association July 16 at the Homestead in Warm Springs. He objected to reporters asking the questions.
The Bar Association agreed to change that decade-old format to a reporter-free format favored by North. The referee is to be Dr. Thomas R. Morris, president of Emory and Henry College.
In accepting the GOP nomination, North promised to take another hill, Capitol Hill. Apparently he wants to sidle up the hill. by CNB