THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411020447
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: REALPOLITIK
Occasional dispatches on the offbeat side of Virginia's 1994 U.S. Senate
race.
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Sen. John Warner knew exactly what he wanted for breakfast when he entered the Twins Ole Towne restaurant Tuesday morning: two eggs - over easy - sausage, whole wheat toast and coffee.
The trouble is, he placed his order with us.
``Holy cow,'' Warner exclaimed, howling with laughter when it was pointed out that he had mistaken a reporter for a waitress. ``I've been campaigning 31 years and I think that's one of the funniest things I've ever done.''
Well, reporters who have covered the senator might argue with that statement, but it was one of the funniest things that happened this day as Warner hit the road with Marshall Coleman in a statewide side-by-side campaign blitz that will last until the election.
``We're in this to the finish line,'' was the refrain of the day as Warner and Coleman assured voters and the press that Coleman would not be pulling out of the race at the 11th hour.
For Warner, it was more than a chance to shore up support for the independent Senate candidate and convince people that they were not wasting their votes on Coleman. It was an opportunity to do a little shopping.
As the day progressed, Coleman seemed increasingly cramped in the back seat of the senator's black Lincoln Town Car as Warner's boxes and bags piled up.
``Senator, we'll have to come back here shopping one day,'' suggested Coleman campaign aide Henry Doggett, trying to hustle Warner along Smithfield's Main Street. Warner was gazing at the window of an antiques store.
``You know I'm crazy about antiques,'' Warner said wistfully, holding several bakery bags under one arm and veering toward the store's door. ``I have a house full of them.''
Later, it was full steam ahead for Warner at Mike's Trainland on Route 17.
After meeting and greeting customers and employees, Warner took reporters to the train museum to view his boyhood train - a 400E Lionel locomotive - given to Warner by his father when he was a child.
``It was top-of-the-line,'' Warner said, looking nostalgically at the gray car behind glass.
``I donated this to the museum before Coleman got in the race,'' he added quickly, lest anyone think there was a political motive.
As Warner pumped quarters into the model train displays and watched the trains going round and round, Coleman and Doggett killed time outside.
The candidate made cellular phone calls from the Lincoln; Doggett lit up a cigarette on the porch. Inside, Warner whipped out his platinum American Express Card.
``Henry, carry this stuff out to the car for me, will you?'' called Warner, piling Doggett's arms high with boxes of ``S'' gauge track and a new transformer for his train set.
``OK, Senator, I think it's time we hit the road,'' Doggett said, smiling.
``Throw me one more curve, please,'' Warner asked Nancy McCrickard behind the counter, referring to the curved pieces of track in one of the boxes. ``In case one of these doesn't work.''
Tuesday's shopping/campaign tour included a stop at the Smithfield packing plant, Wakefield's Virginia Diner (where the politicians left, toting box lunches), King's Famous Bar-B-Q in Petersburg and Hopewell's shopping district.
At each stop, Coleman tackled the question of whether voters would throw away their votes on an independent candidate.
``I'm going his way and so's my husband,'' declared Gladys Holdsworth of Disputante. ``It's only a wasted vote if the people let Robb scare them into thinking that.''
At King's Famous Bar-B-Q, Sterling E. Rives Jr. described himself as a faithful member of the GOP who supports Coleman.
``To me, Marshall Coleman is a Republican,'' said Rives, a member of Petersburg's Republican city committee. ``He's the only Virginia Republican in the race.''
Rives said he has not been threatened with banishment from the party for refusing to support Oliver North, although other Republicans have.
``This is still the Commonwealth of Virginia,'' he said indignantly. ``It's not Nazi Germany.''
Coleman laughed when reporters asked him about news reports saying Chuck Robb wanted him out of the race.
``I think Robb and North both want me out,'' Coleman said. ``Neither one of them wants to be compared to a normal person.''
Warner repeatedly refused to speculate on whether his endorsement of Coleman was aiding Ollie North's quest for the Senate. The senator insisted he didn't care if he had jeopardized his own political career by not supporting North.
``Right now, I'm concerned with helping Marshall Coleman get elected to the U.S. Senate,'' Warner said. ``I think when this is over, the voters will respect me as someone who acted out of his conscience, instead of just being a politician who hangs on to political office by his fingernails, doing anything necessary to stay in office.''
Warner seemed to be having a better time with voters than he had trying to persuade Realpolitik to serve him breakfast.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES
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