THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner declined an invitation to debate James C. Miller III, who is challenging him for the Republican nomination, at a party meeting later this month.
Warner said he hopes to debate after he formally announces his bid for a fourth term in February.
Miller, the former Reagan administration budget director, said Warner is afraid to debate. ``It looks like he's running and hiding from me,'' he said Wednesday.
``That's poppycock,'' said Warner aide Susan Magill.
Miller has challenged Warner to 11 debates, one in each congressional district, before the June 11 primary. The party's state central committee adopted a resolution urging such debates, but none has been set.
Warner campaign manager Jennifer Joy Wilson said in a letter to GOP headquarters that after becoming a formal candidate, Warner ``will offer to debate all contenders for the Republican nomination, at a time and place mutually agreed upon by all interested candidates.''
Warner also released another letter in which he said he will attend the Republican Advance on Jan. 26 in Richmond to introduce the keynote speaker, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. He also plans to host a hospitality suite.
A party announcement of the meeting lists 11th District Rep. Tom Davis as sharing the podium with Hutchison. Warner is not mentioned.
Warner angered many party leaders by refusing to endorse Michael Farris for lieutenant governor in 1993 and by actively opposing GOP Senate candidate Oliver L. North in 1994. Last January, at the Republican Advance in Charlottesville, state party chairman Patrick McSweeney declined to recognize Warner in the audience.
The keynote speaker Jan. 27 will be Kay Coles James, who resigned at the end of the year as Gov. George Allen's secretary of health and human resources.
James has been mentioned as a possible candidate for state party chairwoman, but she said Wednesday she will pursue other opportunities. That makes Del. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake and an Allen ally, the leading candidate to succeed McSweeney.
The new chairman will be elected at the state convention in Salem in June. by CNB