THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130517
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: SENATE RACE '94
26 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS AND WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
In a major toughening of Oliver L. North's strategy, the campaign on Wednesday began airing an advertisement picturing Tai Collins, the model who claims to have had an affair with Charles S. Robb, and said it will start limiting reporters' access to the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate.
The TV spot, which viewers reported seeing in Richmond and Northern Virginia, features a Playboy magazine cover shot of Collins, a former Miss Virginia-USA who Robb acknowledges gave him a nude massage in a New York City hotel room in 1983.
The ad also names four men with whom Robb socialized in Virginia Beach while he was governor a decade ago and who were later convicted of drug-related charges. An announcer asks: ``Why can't Chuck Robb tell the truth about the cocaine parties where Robb said he never saw drugs, and then four of his party friends went to prison for dealing cocaine?''
``Or about the beauty queen in the hotel room in New York? Robb says it was only a massage.''
It quotes an editorial from The Richmond Times-Dispatch: `` `Chuck Robb lived a lie, and violated his oath of good faith to the people of Virginia.' Character counts, and North has it all over Robb.''
The North campaign did not respond to inquiries about the ad. North, who is running even with Robb in two polls this week, has long said that he did not intend to raise Robb's personal life as an issue in the campaign.
But Robb, who once made similar claims about his intentions toward North, recently began showing an ad asking, ``Why do so many people who have worked with Oliver North say he doesn't tell the truth?''
Meanwhile on Wednesday, advisers to North confirmed that they are restricting media access to him in reaction to a series of recent stories that they said unfairly tarnished the Republican candidate.
``From here to the end of the campaign, we're going to focus on what we want to say, not rabbit trails that random reporters would like to send us down,'' said campaign spokesman Mark Merritt.
``Ollie will continue campaigning and meeting people all over Virginia,'' he said. But on some occasions, ``the only uninvited people will be members of the press corps.''
The statement comes in the wake of a series of widely reported gaffes that have raised questions about North's veracity and judgment. The change is a turning point in a campaign that, while attacking the ``liberal media'' in fund-raising appeals and speeches, generally had been open to press scrutiny since North was nominated in June. The result was a high-profile candidacy that obscured Robb for most of the summer.
Even before Merritt's confirmation, a change in strategy seemed evident. Several times in recent days, North has appeared to be avoiding reporters and has turned down or imposed strict conditions on interviews.
On Tuesday, a staff member told reporters that North had no afternoon events scheduled. But North wound up shaking hands at the Fair Oaks Shopping Center in Fairfax and attending a fund-raising event sponsored by the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Wednesday, staff members said that North's only public appearance was a U.S. Capitol news conference with Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole. But North wound up stopping by the Vienna Metro stop in the afternoon.
Earlier this week, the North campaign turned down a request by The Virginian-Pilot and The Roanoke Times & World-News for a sit-down interview with a group of reporters on a broad range of issues. And last week, the campaign required that questions for a story involving the candidate's personal life be submitted in writing. North's responses also were delivered in written form.
Both Robb and former Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman, an independent candidate in the Senate race, responded to requests for the same information with telephone interviews.
``There will still be a lot of accessibility to the press, but it will not be as hodgepodge as it was,'' said Merritt, who argued that North had become ``overexposed.''
``We feel some reporters have abused their access to Ollie . . . and we're going to cut it off to a degree.''
Throughout the summer as North was receiving largely favorable media attention, North aides said that they expected the coverage would turn negative toward the end of the race. They were prepared to go ``over the heads'' of the media with a paid television blitz, they said.
In recent weeks, North has made a number of controversial statements. He has distanced himself from many of them, claiming either that the media misquoted him or took his remarks out of context.
For example, North said he supports the goals of the Heritage Preservation Association, which promotes public display of the Confederate flag. He dismissed Robb's military service, including a tour in Vietnam, as being largely ceremonial.
Last week, he called President Clinton ``boneheaded'' and ``a yahoo'' who is ``not my commander-in-chief.'' And Monday, he suggested that the Clinton administration's military cuts ``tempted'' Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into sending troops toward Kuwait. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Beauty queen Tai Collins claims to have had an affair with Charles
S. Robb.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CAMPAIGN CANDIDATE by CNB