THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190431
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Real Politik
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Occasional dispatches on the offbeat side of Virginia's 1994 race for the U.S. Senate.
First Chuck called in the vice president. Then the president. Then his mother-in-law.
Now the Robb campaign has gone Hollywood.
On Monday night several hundred Robb supporters crammed into the 1708 Art Gallery on Broad Street. Not to admire the watercolors. Not to see the senator - who didn't even come.
They came for Alec Baldwin. Mr. Kim Basinger. The dreamy New York actor who's stumping for Robb - yet who seems never to have met him.
Two days earlier, during an appearance in Norfolk, Robb seemed unsure of who Alec Baldwin was. Robb said he knew just that Baldwin was someone his daughter Cathy had enlisted.
``On Monday in Richmond she's with an Alex Baldwin, is that the name? He's some heartthrob,'' Robb said, shrugging. ``She told me, `Dad, you've seen him in such and such a picture,' whatever the case may be.' ''
Sharing the podium with Baldwin was Cathy Robb, who's dropped out of law school to help her father stay employed, and Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
The glare from this trio of perfect smiles was blinding.
``I know you all came for Alec Baldwin,'' gushed Cathy Robb, introducing Beyer, who was introducing Baldwin. ``I'd come to see Alec Baldwin. But it's important to come out for Chuck Robb, too.''
Robb breathlessly championed her dad, then admitted that she suffered from the family ailment - terminal talkativeness.
``Our family motto is `lose your breath, lose your turn,' '' she cracked before turning the mike over to Beyer.
Beyer leapt to the podium.
``Thank you Cathy Bird,'' he joked before launching into a short list of similarities between Chuck Robb and Alec Baldwin.
Careful there, Don.
``Yeah, they both have a weakness for beautiful blondes,'' quipped one Richmond radio reporter in a stage whisper, drawing glares from the Robb loyalists within earshot.
But that isn't what Beyer meant.
He said both Robb and Baldwin have surrounded themselves with ``tough, effective women''; second, that both are ``intelligent, dedicated men committed to public service'' (a curious description of an actor); and third, that both men are ``unbelievably good-looking.''
OK, Don, so you're two for three.
Maybe Beyer could have just left it that Baldwin is unbelievably good-looking. And Robb used to be. Dressed California-style in a charcoal suit, tieless, and with a black shirt buttoned to the neck, Baldwin had his jet-black hair slicked back and was . . . well . . . just what you'd expect of a man married to a screen sex goddess.
The actor said vanity prevented him from donning his spectacles, so he held his typewritten speech inches from his baby blue eyes and read from it.
``Oliver North is a carpetbagger,'' Baldwin began, in his New Yawk nasal squawk. The crowd, apparently irony-impaired, burst into applause.
Baldwin explained that he was campaigning for the man he called ``Charles Robb'' because the ``composition of the Senate is important to all of us.''
He was diving into Virginia politics, Baldwin said, because he was the son of a Long Island, N.Y., public schoolteacher and because he's a member of a labor union.
Both lines drew a roar from the crowd.
But the actor drew a few groans from the working stiffs when he said: ``And I'm a husband who wants my wife to have equal pay for equal work.''
Baldwin accused Oliver North of wanting to ``return to the Reagan years of `I've got mine, to hell with you.' ''
Faintly, throughout the speech, ominous sounds of ``Ollie, Ollie, Ollie'' could be heard.
Outside, on the sidewalk, a handful of North supporters chanted as they held aloft signs reading ``Hollywood Ultra-Leftists for Robb.''
A knot of Robbies got into a scuffle with the Northites when they snatched an Ollie sign. The crowd cheered as it was torn into bits and tossed into the air like confetti.
Although several of Richmond's finest were standing by in case of trouble, the confrontation was confined to name calling.
``Don't vote for felons,'' yelled the Robb folks.
``No job for Robb,'' the North guys hollered back.
``Bigots for North,'' they yelled.
``Dump Robb,'' they countered.
Baldwin missed all this. He slipped out the back of the gallery as soon as his speech was over, signing no autographs, shaking no hands.
What a Getaway.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB