THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995                TAG: 9501060486
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   57 lines

AIR FORCE BASE ADVOCATE RECOMMENDED FOR BRAC BUSINESSMAN AL CORNELLA HAS LED THE DRIVE TO KEEP THE SOUTH DAKOTA BASE OPEN.

One day into his new role as Senate minority leader, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., used its power to recommend for the base-closing commission a businessman leading the drive to save an Air Force base in his home state.

Daschle recommended Al Cornella, who runs a commercial refrigeration business in Rapid City, S.D., for the eight-member panel that decides which military bases will be closed.

As the new Democratic leader in the Senate, Daschle can make one recommendation for a presidential appointment to the panel.

Rapid City is home to nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota's largest employer.

Cornella, a Navy veteran, is chairman of the local chamber of commerce's Ellsworth task force, which recently hired a Washington consultant to lobby the commission. Two weeks ago, he and a group of officials from the state met with Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall to discuss the base's future.

Cornella's selection was immediately denounced by the Texas congressman who wrote the law setting up the base-closing commission.

``I assume that this is a joke,'' said House Republican Leader Dick Armey.

``A parochial advocate should be testifying before the commission, not sitting on it. This candidate would seem to have exactly the wrong qualifications to be an impartial commissioner.''

Congress set up the Base Closure and Realignment Commission to provide an independent, bipartisan method of deciding which bases to close as the military shrinks.

Jim Courter, who led the commission from 1991 to 1994, said Cornella would have to excuse himself from any deliberations dealing with Ellsworth and possibly any similar bases.

``He's not coming with a perspective of evenhandedness. It's very important to have no opinion on a particular facility,'' Courter said Thursday.

An aide to Daschle said Cornella probably would stay out of deliberations dealing with Ellsworth.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole made two selections for the commission this year: Michael P.W. Stone, secretary of the Army in the Bush administration, and Wendi Steele, an aide to the commission in 1991 and 1992.

The House leadership can make three recommendations, and one more is reserved for President Clinton to select.

Clinton is expected to send the seven recommendations to the Senate next week for confirmation. The Senate already has confirmed the commission's chairman, former Sen. Alan Dixon of Illinois.

KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS by CNB