THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270504
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Oliver North, whose felony convictions were overturned by a federal appeals panel, criticized Sen. Charles S. Robb on Wednesday for backing federal appeals judges who North said are too soft on criminals.
Robb, meantime, appeared with abortion rights activists in Northern Virginia. Independent Marshall Coleman issued his campaign reform plan in a speech at Norfolk State University.
North attacked Democrat Robb's votes this year to confirm Rosemary Barkett for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and H. Lee Sarokin for the 3rd Circuit appeals court.
The Republican challenger said both judges have supported appeals by convicted murderers.
``Chuck Robb talks tough about crime, but he's really soft on crime,'' North said at a news conference.
Robb called North's comments ``incredible.''
``I've always had a record very tough on crime,'' he said at his campaign headquarters in Northern Virginia.
Robb said both judges were endorsed by their states' senators and police organizations, and each received the highest rating of the American Bar Association.
Asked about his Iran-Contra felony convictions that were thrown out in 1990 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, North said his case differed from those handled by Barkett and Sarokin.
``We're talking about violent crime,'' North said. ``Judges Sarokin and Barkett, both of whom Chuck Robb voted for, are in favor of releasing perpetrators of violent crimes.''
A federal jury convicted North of aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress, shredding official documents and taking an illegal gratuity. The appeals court said his trial had been tainted by testimony North gave Congress under immunity.
Outside North's news conference, state Democratic Party spokeswoman Gail Nardi handed out copies of a jury's form marked with guilty verdicts and a police photo of a grim-faced North taken after his arrest.
``It's not only hypocritical, it's hilarious,'' she said of North's comments on the judges. ``A jury of his peers convicted him of three felonies. He got the benefit of the Constitution that he is railing against today.''
While North was talking about judges, Robb moved Wednesday to the subject of abortion, shifting his sights away from North and onto Coleman.
Abortion rights advocates appearing with Robb at a news conference argued that Coleman is not trustworthy.
``He is one of this campaign season's `great pretenders' who is trying to pull the wool over voters' eyes by suggesting he is pro-choice despite his anti-choice history,'' said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
The news conference underscored Robb's concerns that some mainstream Republicans put off by North's conservative agenda may turn to Coleman in the final 13 days before the election.
Recent polls show Robb and North locked in a dead heat, with Coleman a distant third with less than 20 percent of the vote.
Michelman said that Robb is the only candidate with a chance to defeat North, and that ``voting for Marshall Coleman is like voting for Oliver North.''
``The fact is that a vote for Marshall Coleman is a vote for Marshall Coleman,'' Coleman spokesman Anson Franklin said. ``It's a vote to break away from two tainted candidates with a tainted past.''
Coleman took a progressive stand on abortion early in his political career, then moved to the right to court the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party during his campaigns for governor in 1981 and 1989. He now says he personally opposes abortion, but would leave the decision to women.
Robb supports Roe vs. Wade, which allows states to regulate abortion in the second and third trimester. North would outlaw abortion except in cases of rape and incest.
``Oliver North is Public Enemy No. 1 for American women during this election cycle,'' Michelman said. ``There is no doubt that Oliver North would stand in the U.S. Senate with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) as commanding officers in the battle to turn back the clock on American women.''
North has dismissed the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League as a fringe leftist organization.
Coleman, appearing in Norfolk, said the North/Robb brawl suits him fine. Coleman stumped Wednesday repeating his campaign's theme: That he is the only candidate running on the issues.
Coleman spent much of the day distributing his two-page position on campaign and ethics reforms.
He called for limiting the amount candidates can collect from outside their home state. He proposed limits on publicly funded congressional mail and on campaign money carried over from one election to the next. He also endorsed term limits and making campaign contributions tax deductible, and called for a ban on gifts from lobbyists.
``These guys have become the champions of negative campaigning,'' Coleman said, stopping for ice cream during a campaign sweep through the Waterside marketplace.
``I can't say what will or won't happen the next two weeks, but I'm going to try my best to do what I said I was going to do - talk about the issues.'' MEMO: Staff writers David M. Poole and Robert Little contributed to this
report.
ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
WEDNESDAY
[For complete text of candidates' schedules, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES
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