THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270295
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Announcing his bid for re-election to a fourth term, U.S. Sen. John Warner flung a challenge in the teeth of foes within the GOP who resent his streak of independence.
``My campaign will answer this question: Can an elected leader vote his conscience, putting principle before politics, and win?'' Warner said last week during a three-day swing around Virginia.
``The Virginia I know. . . The Virginia I love, will say, `Yes,' '' he predicted.
Republican Warner chose to seek the nomination in a statewide primary election June 11 rather than in the confines of a party convention where some right-wing leaders could bushwhack him.
``It is not popular to put principle before politics; it is not popular to put the state before the party, but it is the way I live my life,'' he said. ``I make no apologies.''
Some members in the GOP hierarchy are irked at Warner's having opposed Oliver North, the Iran Contra figure, during the 1994 senatorial race.
There is no registration by party in Virginia, where many voters cherish the right of crossing party lines when the spirit moves them.
And Warner's irate GOP critics suspect that the spirit might so move Warner's admirers among independents and Democrats grateful to him for working to block North.
Warner recruited former Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman to run as an independent in the general election, which North lost to Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb.
Earlier, in 1993, Warner declined to endorse Christian conservative Michael P. Farris in a losing race for lieutenant governor.
Seeking to defeat Warner in this year's primary is former federal budget director James C. Miller III.
Miller was a candidate against North in the 1994 GOP convention, but he supported him in the general election. For that, Miller has received North's somewhat veiled, roguish endorsement.
Warner launched his campaign Thursday in Richmond at the state Capitol in the company of a dozen Republican members of the Virginia General Assembly and his campaign manager, 11th District Congressman Thomas M. Davis III.
Answering questions in a news conference, Warner said Patrick Buchanan's victory in the New Hampshire primary should alert the GOP to focus on economic security.
If the GOP nominates Buchanan for president, Warner said, he would back him. Warner knows him well from the days when Buchanan worked in the Nixon White House and Warner was secretary of the Navy.
``We differ on many principles but on speaking candidly. Frankly and from the heart, I like to think we are very much alike,'' he said.
He said he continues to back ``my big brother,'' Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas. by CNB