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

DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995          TAG: 9509130404
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

WARNER NAMED CHAIRMAN OF SENATE RULES PANEL

A reshuffling triggered by the resignation last week of Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood will make Virginia Sen. John W. Warner chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

The Senate Republican Conference selected Warner for the post on Tuesday, giving him a political plum he was denied last December.

Warner will replace Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who is becoming chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The chairmanship is the first for Warner, who has been in the Senate since 1979, and the first held by any Virginia senator since 1966.

The Rules Committee handles some of Congress' most politically delicate legislation, particularly election laws and campaign finance. It also reviews the budgets of other committees, giving it clout within the Senate.

Warner signaled on Tuesday that he will continue to oppose efforts by some Democrats to provide public financing of congressional campaigns. But he also said, ``We have to constantly search for means to lessen expenditures in these campaigns.''

The rules committee's membership includes Majority Leader Bob Dole and the chairmen of four other Senate committees.

By virtue of seniority, Warner was in line to head the committee after Republicans won control of the Senate last November. But the GOP conference gave the job to Stevens instead, triggering speculation that Warner was being punished for opposing the Senate candidacy last year of fellow Virginian Oliver L. North.

Warner spurned North, the Republican nominee against Sen. Charles S. Robb, terming the former Iran-Contra figure unfit to serve. He recruited former state Attorney General Marshall Coleman to run as an independent and campaigned for Coleman.

Coleman finished third in the race, which was won by Robb. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Sen. John Warner's chairmanship of the Rules Committee is the first

held by a Virginian since 1966.

by CNB