THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270495
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEC KLEIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
In hot pursuit for 48 hours, at least one reporter has hurtled through eight red lights, parked illegally three times, driven with no passengers in HOV lanes and floored the car in reverse up a one-way street.
Such are the perils of chasing day and night after Oliver L. North, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
After basking in the media spotlight for months, the charismatic ex-Marine has done an about-face. He plays hard-to-get with reporters by executing a series of unscheduled, almost covert, pit stops at shopping malls, offices and supporters' homes.
His getaway vehicle is a motor home called Rolling Thunder - top cruising speed, 70 mph; average parking violations per day, 1.5.
The drill goes like this: North schedules a single news conference at which he rails against incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb or President Clinton. Then aides whisk him out, and he disappears with a gap-toothed Cheshire grin and drives away to who knows where.
A pack of reporters rush to their cars and set out desperately to keep the surprisingly agile RV in sight.
``Hey, whatever turns you on,'' North's driver, Don Gabbard, shrugged Wednesday about the media highway frenzy.
The GOP team has covered more than 300 miles in the past two days while reporters pursuing it have barely escaped car wrecks and tow trucks. ``Sic 'em! Sic 'em!'' a bystander called out as reporters on foot scrambled after North on Tuesday morning.
After a brief news conference at state GOP headquarters in Richmond, North was escorted to the Chesterfield Towne Center Mall, where he plunged into a crowd of rabid supporters chanting, ``Ol-lie! Ol-lie!''
North moved on to Richmond's Philip Morris cigarette factory. But the candidate managed to elude most reporters as he slipped off to a private meeting with a Richmond state senator and then to an invitation-only fund-raiser in King William County.
On Wednesday, North repeated the practice, hacking away at Robb as a liberal extremist in front of a battery of TV cameras.
``Goodness gracious,'' he muttered at the spectacle as he entered the Virginia headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police in Richmond.
Afterward, North again walked out the door and off the charted territory of his campaign schedule. One single-minded reporter - equipped with digital pager, cellular phone, portable computer, electronic organizer and a box of Chewy Granola Bars - stayed on the trail, determined to penetrate North's covert afternoon.
Now it can be told: North went on to tape a TV commercial in Silver Spring, Md., then headed back to his campaign headquarters in Chantilly, Va. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff file
Oliver North's campaign strategy - one news conference a day.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES
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