THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410060476
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUNSET BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Oliver North plays well on the Eastern Shore. And the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate selects his arenas like a veteran showman.
On Wednesday, more than 3,200 people gathered at the Sunset Beach Inn, just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, for the second annual Harvestfest. They ate mounds of seafood, drank gallons of beer and watched for North to arrive.
Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer was there, and so was independent Senate candidate J. Marshall Coleman. But North supporters had wallpapered the crowd with round, blue Ollie stickers, and it was definitely his day.
North didn't disappoint the crowd.
First, a blue pickup truck pulled into the parking lot with a big American flag flying from a pole strapped near the driver's seat. Then came the North-mobile, Ollie's van.
Within seconds, the word had spread: He's here.
If he hadn't been the famous Oliver North, veteran of who-knows-how-many media circuses, the man would have been blended into the Eastern Shore crowd.
North looked like half the guys there: tan chinos with a pen in the pocket. Blue-collared shirt. Distressed-leather jacket and cowboy boots. Eyes that crinkled when he flashed his perpetual smile.
He was surrounded by a swarm of campaign workers. They eased him into the long tent that served as an entrance to the festival grounds. And that was it. The crowd descended.
First, Cape Charles Town Manager Dick Barton pinned a gold Cape Charles pin on the candidate and asked him to pose for pictures. Chris Bannon, owner of the Sea Gate Bed and Breakfast, teased North.
``How about a statement for the press,'' called Bannon. ``Say, I love bed and breakfasts on the Eastern Shore.''
``That'll work,'' North quipped.
He moved through the crowd inch by inch, signing autographs, kissing and being kissed, hugging and shaking hands. The Shriners asked him for a donation, and he coughed up some cash.
North signed baseball hats, tickets, pictures of himself. Sometimes he used his son's back as a surface for signatures. Stuart North, always watchful, rarely left his father's elbow.
The crowd tightened around North like a noose. After more than an hour of smiling, shaking and hugging, he barely got out of the entrance tent. Finally, his entourage dragged the candidate away and whisked him into his van, which had been moved close to the tent.
``This is the second time I've come to this festival,'' North said as he was leaving. ``I aim to be back for the 14th one, campaigning for my replacement.''
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE CAMPAIGN by CNB