THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411050677
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS AND ALEC KLEIN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
With the clock ticking on the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Charles S. Robb predicted Friday that he is headed for victory and credited former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, Nancy Reagan and opponent Oliver L. North with prodding his once-stalled campaign.
North was the one campaigning as if protecting a lead, though, playing it safe by avoiding fumbles, ducking the media and jabbing at President Clinton.
Robb, at a stop in Tappahannock, said he had faith in his own instincts to carry him through Election Day.
``I have a sense of timing and ultimately I'm going to suceed or fail based on my own sense of what to do and when to do it.
``I was never a sprinter. In track I was a distance man,'' said Robb as he paused for a fast-food hamburger during a day spent campaigning in two areas critical to his campaign - Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
Under questioning by reporters, Robb turned slightly reflective on a re-election bid in which he has taken a minuscule lead, according to polls.
He discounted speculation that there is ``stealth'' vote waiting to propel North to victory, and said it is just as likely that Republicans who've publicly endorsed independent J. Marshall Coleman will secretly vote for him.
``I have never been involved in an election where so many people have said, `If you don't win I'm moving out of Virginia,' '' Robb said. While he expects that the comment is hyperbole, he's heard it well over a hundred times, he estimated.
Stressing that he prefers ``to sort out all the arrows and darts after the election,'' Robb agreed that Wilder's aid in rallying African-American voters has been ``an important factor.'' The nation's first elected black governor, Wilder rallied to Robb two weeks ago after months of trashing him.
``I have to give Ollie North credit. I have to give Nancy Reagan credit,'' Robb said. ``. . . I'm prepared to let anybody take credit as long as we get a victory.''
Nancy Reagan recently accused North of lying to her husband.
At a joint appearance in Newport News, federal Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary - who grew up in that city - accused North of fostering divisiveness.
``We don't want someone to go to the Senate and fight. . . . We are not at war,'' she said. ``We're sick of the ugliness. We are people of character.''
Repeatedly as Robb shook hands in Newport News and Gloucester he told well-wishers, ``If you're going to surge at any time during a campaign, I can't think of a better time than the last few days.'' He cautioned against overconfidence, quipping that about $1.5 million of North's $18 million war chest is still unaccounted for and may be spent on get-out-the-vote efforts.
Asked what he might do after the election if he loses, Robb seemed baffled by the question. ``I'm not pulling any remarks together in anticipation of a wake,'' he finally said.
As for North, Robb said he doubts a loss would erase him from the national political scene. ``He has the most valuable mailing list in this country,'' Robb said. ``He'll be a hot property whatever he does.''
North spent most of Friday calm and cool, sticking to a low-key strategy that seemed designed not to make any last-minute headlines.
The Republican candidate spent the afternoon interviewing on local radio station WNOR, attending to paperwork in a Greenbrier Holiday Inn and glad-handing shoppers in an unscheduled stop at a Chesapeake Wal-Mart.
North, however, was forced deep in his own territory at an evening appearance at the Filipino Cultural Center in Virginia Beach. Yet again, he was asked about his role in trading arms for hostages and diverting funds to rebels in Nicaragua during the mid-1980s.
``I happen to take the word commitment very seriously,'' he told the crowd of more than 40 in Kempsville. ``I made a commitment to my family, my wife, my children, my country. I went to the White House under orders as a U.S. Marine and carried out the orders I was given. In doing so, I put my own life at risk, put my family at risk and jeopardized what had been a pretty good career in the military.
``I didn't do any of that for my own personal pleasure or my own gratification, and my motive throughout was to save the lives of other people. brought him to those parties in Virginia Beach, or to the hotel room in New York that is now folklore in Virginia.''
North was referring to reports that Robb attended parties where illicit drugs were used and to the fact that the married senator admitted he accepted a nude massage from a Virginia beauty queen in New York.
Earlier that day, North ridiculing Robb and President Clinton at a Norfolk news conference.
Robb has ``spent the last several years doing nothing more than trying to cover his own tracks,'' North said at Waterside. ``He's tried to cover his tracks down here in Tidewater, where his shocking personal indiscretions read like tawdry copy from a cheap pulp novel. . . . And now he's trying to cover up his abandonment of our national defense and the men and women who serve in our armed forces.''
Brandishing a broom, North said, ``I've got a better way for Chuck Robb to cover his tracks. Take this broom, fasten it to your belt loop, put it behind you and drag it out of town behind you after you finish this term. Chuck, if you don't want to use the broom now, leave it for me. I'll use it to clear up the big mess you left behind.''
Independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman spent Friday touring with his biggest supporter, U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, and hammering the message that Virginians must not consider a vote for Coleman to be a wasted vote.
``I am confident that Virginia voters are too smart to be swayed by pathetic appeals to cast strategic votes simply to help one or the other of the defective major-party candidates defeat his evil twin,'' Coleman said at a Northern Virginia rally with Warner and former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.
``My challenge to Virginians is, vote your conscience,'' Coleman said.
KEYWORDS: SENATE RACE CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN by CNB