THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410010287
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A conservative Dream Team campaigned for Oliver L. North on Friday, with televangelist Jerry Falwell and former Vice President Dan Quayle making verbal high-fives over the Republican U.S. Senate nominee.
``I think if he doesn't shoot his wife or do some other dumb thing between now and November, he's in,'' Falwell said after a fund-raising luncheon where he sat at the front table with North and Quayle.
After Jack Kemp and Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, Quayle is the third potential GOP presidential contender to pay homage to North in the last two months, and he was equally enthusiastic about North's chances of unseating Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb.
``Ollie, I've been around a lot of campaigns and I can feel a winning campaign,'' Quayle said. ``I have to tell you this is a winning campaign, and you are a winner.''
More than 200 Republicans, many of whom paid $500 apiece to pose for a snapshot with Quayle and North, crammed the ballroom of Oakwood Country Club to cheer and laugh as North turned Clinton into a four-letter word.
``We have a choice this year between a Clinton senator and a Virginia senator, and I am going to be a Virginia senator,'' said North, who blamed all sorts of bad things - burdensome taxes, unsafe streets and moral decay - on the 22-month term of President Bill Clinton.
Citing Robb's record of backing Clinton 95 percent of the time last year, North called Robb a ``steadfast, stalwart, lock-step friend'' of Clinton who has invited the president to a fund-raising dinner next Monday in Northern Virginia.
``Chuck Robb has abandoned the hard-working, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia and has gone to go to work for Bill Clinton. And I am going to remind the people of Virginia of that at every single turn.''
Susan Platt, Robb's campaign manager, said later that Virginians will not be fooled by North's rhetoric.
``This is just another Oliver twist,'' she said. ``Unlike Ollie North, Chuck Robb has a long record of helping the people of Virginia on matters that affect their daily lives, be it jobs, education, crime or keeping government out of a woman's right to choose.''
In introducing North, Lynchburg Mayor Jim Whittaker said the ``radical'' label fits North in terms of not wanting to be part of the status quo in Washington.
``I'm glad to know that when Ollie gets to Washington, he is not going to fit in,'' Whittaker said. ``We don't want him to fit in. We want him to do what's best for Virginia and our country.''
A minor cultural war broke out on the country club's manicured grounds when North arrived. On one side were a couple of dozen clean-cut College Republicans who looked like they were on their way to Sunday School. On the other was a smaller band of anti-North college students who wore jeans and were led by a Randolph-Macon Women's College student with a silver stud piercing her nose.
``A lot of people are interested in running a smear campaign against Ollie North,'' said Scott Pinsker, leader of the James Madison University College Republicans, who was armed with a campaign-issue North sign. ``We're not going to let that happen.''
Candice Mickelson, a Randolph-Macon Women's College sophomore from Baltimore toting a homemade ``Ollie Lies'' sign, said the election of North, who was convicted and later cleared of three felonies stemming from the Iran-Contra scandal, would show that society does not respect the law.
``If I were a serial killer, my chances of winning election would be tenfold (better) if Oliver North gets in,'' Mickelson said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
GOP Senate candidate Oliver L. North, left, celebrates an
endorsement by former Vice President Dan Quayle during a luncheon at
Oakwood Country Club in Lynchburg Friday.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB