THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310460
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEC KLEIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
In his most pointed attack to date, independent U.S. Senate candidate J. Marshall Coleman on Tuesday called into question his rivals' fitness for public office.
Coleman's joust comes on the heels of a tit-for-tat over character between Republican nominee Oliver L. North and Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb.
``These candidates are an embarrassment to Virginia,'' Coleman said. ``They are the reasons I am in the race.''
Despite the candidate's salvos, he did not press the attack beyond his prepared remarks at a state Capitol news conference, nor did he take aim at former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, also an independent candidate.
Instead, Coleman targeted the media for ignoring his campaign, which he blamed in part for his weak showing in recent polls.
``My candidacy is for the forgotten majority of Virginians,'' he said, ``those who work hard and pay their taxes and only ask in return that their public officials don't lie to them, don't steal from them, and don't embarrass them.''
Coleman, a former state attorney general offering himself as an alternative to the two major party candidates, called Robb ``a part-time Senator whose motto is `not everyone can be a leader' and whose staff once sent a memo suggesting he show up for work before 10 a.m.; a candidate who calls himself mainstream even though he supports Bill Clinton's liberal agenda 94 percent of the time; a man who has earned more attention for troubles in his private life than accomplishments in his public life; a public official who has been involved with two grand jury investigations, one about friends who associate with the drug culture in Virginia Beach and one in which he was a target for his own role in a very public battle with his political rival, Doug Wilder.''
Retorted Robb spokeswoman Peggy Wilhide: ``Marshall tried three times to run for statewide office, and he's been rejected each time. He had the opportunity to earn his party's nomination, but he didn't. Now he has no chance to get elected. All he's doing is helping Oliver North get elected.''
Coleman cast North as ``a self-described outsider who in fact was the ultimate Washington insider who abused the power of the White House to achieve his own political ends; a man whose credibility is challenged at every turn, whether it is imagined meetings with President Reagan or exaggerated roles in public policy; a politician who wears his defiance of Congress and the rule of law as a badge of honor; a man who was convicted by a jury on three felony counts yet claims exoneration because the convictions were overruled on appeal because his testimony to Congress was given under a guarantee of immunity.''
The North campaign, gaining momentum in recent weeks, shrugged off Coleman's remarks. ``The bottom line is, Marshall Coleman is road kill on the campaign highway, and we drove by him a long time ago,'' North spokesman Mark Merritt said.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB