THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502270053
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Not quite four months have elapsed since the 1994 race for one of Virginia's seats in the U.S. Senate, and here we are in the campaign for the other seat in the 1996 election.
On Thursday, Republican U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, running for re-election, announced that former President Bush had agreed to appear in Richmond on April 10 at a fund-raiser for Warner and Republican candidates for the General Assembly.
For Warner to seek to embrace, in his own fund-raiser, this year's GOP legislative candidates seems a master stroke, politic and generous.
On Friday, state GOP Chairman Patrick M. McSweeney wrote Bush not to come to Warner's aid: ``Your decision is a slap at a grass-roots party that supported you faithfully in 1992 while John Warner was hiding in the tall grass.''
McSweeney said he was distressed Bush had declined to speak at a party event the same night.
But Warner, a Bush delegate in 1980, campaigned ``wholeheartedly'' for him in 1992, Warner aide Susan Magill said Sunday.
So much for GOP Gov. George F. Allen's plea for a moratorium on the 1996 campaign until after the 1995 election, in which Republicans seek a majority of legislative seats.
Even as Allen was asking for a truce in November, James C. Miller III was exploring the possibility of running against Warner. Soon thereafter, Miller began seeking support. He plans to announce his candidacy within the next few days.
Warner picked up his pace, wooing support during weekends when the Senate is not in session.
In 1994, Miller lost, in a convention, his contest with Oliver North for the GOP nomination. Although underfunded, starting late, and opposed by many party leaders, Miller drew upward of 45 percent of the convention vote.
Nominee North, of Iran Contra fame, lost in the general election to Democrat U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb, who was hobbled by allegations of personal indiscretions.
McSweeney blames Warner for North's loss to Robb. After the convention, Republican J. Marshall Coleman, encouraged by Warner, entered the Robb-North fray as an independent candidate. Among Republicans opposing North were Nancy Reagan and Colin Powell.
In his letter to Bush, McSweeney said Warner had not given ``a straight-forward commitment about 1996.'' To the contrary, Warner has preferred a primary, open to all voters, rather than a convention where dominant right-wingers would lie in wait to scalp him.
Magill released a letter, dated Tuesday, from Warner to McSweeney in which he committed himself to seeking the party's nomination next year in a primary. As an incumbent he can, by law, select the method.
Warner is a sitting U.S. senator and has the right to invite anybody he pleases to a fund-raiser. McSweeney's proper course is to keep his mouth shut and, as party chairman, keep a semblance of neutrality. ILLUSTRATION: Sen. Warner's invitation of George Bush to an April fund-raiser
merits praise, not vitriol, from the party chairman.
by CNB