THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 14, 1995 TAG: 9511140213
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
During the campaign for General Assembly seats, Gov. George F. Allen popped up promising that Republicans offered ``honest change.''
An interesting choice of words!
There are myriad changes - constructive, positive, ill-advised, ill-timed, negative - but ``honest''? Did he mean the way the change is wrought should be honest?
Consider this example.
The Joint Republican Caucus, which plots strategy for campaigns, bought 6,000 postcards that were mailed to Charlottesville Democrats just before last Tuesday's election.
The cards gave ``The Top 10 Reasons'' Democrats should vote for an independent, Donal B. Day, running for the Virginia Senate.
That was devised to undermine the Democratic candidate, Emily Couric, and boost the Republican incumbent, Sen. Edgar S. Robb. The cards' return address was ``Dems 4 Day.''
Couric won, with 50 percent of the vote. Robb had 45 percent. Day, a University of Virginia nuclear physicist, had 4 percent. Another independent got 1 percent.
Caucus director J. Scott Leake told Mike Allen of the Richmond Times-Dispatch there's a long history and tradition in Virginia of independent expenditures - ``This is just the latest. We abided by every letter of the law. Every deadline was met, every paper was filed.''
The card, he said, was meant to draw Democrat votes to Donal Day and ``take 'em away from Emily Couric. . . . The thinking behind this was, drive a wedge between the liberal base.''
David S. Johnson, executive director of the Virginia GOP, called it ``an incredible act of irresponsibility on someone's part.''
Asked if it was ethical, Leake said it was probably a mistake to attribute it to a Democratic group. ``In retrospect . . . it just could have been `Neighbors and Friends,' or something, and I think that probably would not have raised the ire.''
GOP Chairman Patrick Sweeney said, ``The party didn't do it. I have no intention of apologizing. You guys make too much of the whining of the Democrats.
``I don't equate being legal with being ethical. When we reach the point that being ethical is only one degree north of what's not criminal, we've sunk pretty low.''
Gail Nardi of the Democratic Party said the ruse ``goes well beyond dirty tricks into the realm of slime and law-breaking. The governor should demand the resignation of the operatives responsible.''
Neither Robb nor Day knew of the trick, apparently.
Governor Allen told CNN Friday that he knew nothing about it. Ask those involved, he advised.
Now he does. Let him lend guidance to the Commonwealth.
Was it an act of ``honest'' change?
Will he denounce it?
Or tender an apology?
If not, will Allen spare us any piosity about honesty in the next race? ILLUSTRATION: The Joint Republican Caucus mailed 6,000 postcards to
Charlottesville Democrats just before last Tuesday's election. That
was devised to undermine the Democratic candidate and boost the
Republican incumbent.
by CNB