THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407090233
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Independent candidate L. Douglas Wilder said Friday that he will get a kick out of confounding political scientists analyzing the U.S. Senate race, including those predicting a mudslinging free-for-all.
This is the first time in Virginia history that a Senate race has had four major candidates, so experts can't point to previous behavior of candidates and voters as they typically do to support their analysis, Wilder said.
``The pundits will have nothing with which to go on,'' Wilder said. ``It will be all guesswork.''
Wilder and fellow independent J. Marshall Coleman came to separate parts of Roanoke but made the same promise: They will stick to the issues and keep the campaign clean.
``I want to give the voters an opportunity to vote for somebody and not against anybody,'' Wilder said during the annual meeting of the Valley Baptist Association's Women's Auxiliary. ``I am not going to be involved in muckraking or mudslinging.''
``My strategy is very simple,'' Coleman said during a news conference in a hotel lobby. ``I am going to take a message of hope and promise to the whole state.''
Coleman made a few general criticisms of Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb and Republican nominee Oliver North and said they are ``completely out of touch with Virginians.'' But when pressed to explain why he has split from the GOP's nominee, Coleman said, ``I am not running this campaign to say why I'm running against someone else.''
Coleman even put in a good word for Wilder when asked about him. ``He reflects the fact that thousands of Democrats are unhappy. He's made the statements repeatedly about Chuck Robb, much more eloquently than I can. He certainly knows him better than I.''
Wilder was the Democratic nominee and Coleman was the Republican nominee when they last campaigned against each other, in 1989. Wilder won, becoming the nation's first black elected governor.
Coleman said he's confident that won't happen again. ``I think the people of Virginia desperately want an alternative. Virginians are happy to have more than two choices out there. I think they are going to turn to me as the person who can restore ethics to government and common sense policy-making.''
In Fredericksburg, North practiced target shooting and canvassed for votes with marksmen at the Fredericksburg Rod and Gun Club.
North, a retired Marine whose company manufactures bulletproof vests for law enforcement agencies, tried his hand alongside gun aficionados competing in a regional target-shooting championship.
Clad in casual clothes and cowboy boots, the outline of a tin of snuff visible in his pocket, North grinned as he inspected his handiwork. He had fired eight rounds and apparently hit seven targets, without hitting any of the simulated hostages or other obstacles.
``This is great fun. There are a lot of people out there who believe very strongly in the Second Amendment, as I do,'' North said afterward.
``Chuck Robb has voted for all the phony gun-control measures,'' North said. ``The only real solution is the George Allen solution,'' of reforming sentencing, abolishing parole and building more prisons, North said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, right, an independent candidate for
the U.S. Senate from Virginia, takes time out to greet old friends
Friday before delivering a speech at the annual meeting of the
Women's Auxiliary of the Valley Baptist Association in Roanoke. From
left, Wilder's old friends are Lawrence Hamlar, A. Byron Smith and
Carolyn Word.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB