THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507230075
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
In a move some view as payback for an endorsement that helped Democrats to a rare election triumph last fall, President Clinton and Virginia's Democratic senator have agreed to assist a former opponent, L. Douglas Wilder, in retiring his campaign debts.
Clinton agreed last week to head the receiving line when the senator, Charles S. Robb, holds a party next month to reduce the debt Wilder amassed in his four-month campaign for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination and in his independent bid last year for Robb's seat.
``It's political,'' Wilder, a former Virginia governor, said Thursday. ``Let's not beat around the bush. It's what happens in politics. With all the times I have helped other people, is it unusual that they would want to do a little bit for me?''
Three days after a private meeting with the president last October, Wilder, who had ended his independent Senate campaign a month before, endorsed Robb in his race for re-election against the Republican candidate, Oliver L. North. The endorsement helped Robb prevail in the election, one of the Democrats' few major victories in what was generally a Republican rout.
The fund-raising reception is to be held Aug. 2 in McLean at the home of a lawyer for Wilder, Leslie J. Kerman. She said Wilder, who is now the host of syndicated radio and television programs, hoped to raise $140,000.
A White House spokeswoman said the president rarely raises money for people who are not candidates. She said since the November election, the only other fund-raising event for an individual that Clinton had attended was a party last month for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Mark J. Rozell, a political scientist at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, said: ``It's payback time - literally. Most people suspected there was some kind of secret deal that got Doug Wilder to endorse his biggest enemy, Chuck Robb.''
When told about the planned event, North, the former national security aide in the Reagan administration who is now the host of a syndicated radio show, laughed and said: ``They'll all have to hold their noses. It's Little Rock politics, brought to Washington.''
Kerman denied that there had been any deal last fall to obtain Wilder's endorsement. ``If there was a quid pro quo, Doug Wilder would be an ambassador, and we wouldn't have all this debt,'' she said. ``Doug Wilder makes better deals than that.''
Robb and Wilder are longtime political rivals who have feuded for years. In 1991, Robb revealed that his aides had a copy of an illegal tape of a telephone conversation in which Wilder criticized Robb.
In 1993, Wilder compared Robb with former President Richard M. Nixon, calling him ``another unindicted co-conspirator whose plight was likewise tied to illegal taping.''
Wilder also has needled Clinton over the years. After abandoning his presidential quest in 1992, Wilder annoyed party officials by waiting until the nominating convention to endorse Clinton, a fellow Southern governor.
After Clinton gave a speech about personal responsibility, Wilder said, ``All I can say to Gov. Clinton is, `Doctor, heal thyself.' ''
Joshua F. Goldstein, the research director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington, said of next month's event: ``It's easy for politicians to shake hands and say, `No hard feelings.' But raising money for someone is real fence-mending.''
At the time of the endorsement last fall, Wilder said his return to the Democratic fold had nothing to do with fund-raising. ``I don't need anybody to help me retire a paltry debt that I have,'' he said. ``It's nothing. It's pennies. Will it be raised? Surely. I can retire it on my own.'' by CNB