THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080653
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Conservative talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy's daughter has been named deputy director of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation - a job that was eliminated two years ago in Gov. George F. Allen's drive to downsize government.
Alexandra ``Sandy'' Liddy Bourne, an unsuccessful Republican candidate last year for the Virginia House of Delegates, will assume the $50,000-a-year post May 20, according to state officials.
The appointment was announced at a department staff meeting Monday by Secretary of Natural Resources Becky Norton Dunlop, who, like Bourne, is from Northern Virginia and is active in GOP circles.
Dunlop has been roundly criticized by state auditors, environmentalists and lawmakers for hiring political allies to help manage Virginia's environmental agencies.
At least one Democrat saw that trend continuing with Bourne's assignment.
``I find it ironic that a government that would shrink bureaucracy would then create a job for what looks like purely political reasons,'' said Del. Linda T. ``Toddy'' Puller, who defeated Bourne in November's election for the District 44 seat in Northern Virginia.
``I never heard her mention the environment during the campaign, so I don't know what her interest is in this department,'' Puller added.
Bourne, a former nurse who was appointed by Allen to the state Board of Nursing last year, did not respond to what she called ``rumors and back-stabbing.''
``Our purpose is to maintain clean water and soil . . . and I'm willing to work with everyone to do so,'' she said.
Tom Hopkins, deputy secretary of natural resources, said Bourne was hired because of her experience in soil and water issues. She was elected to the Northern Virginia Water and Soil Conservation District in 1993, and plans to continue serving until her term expires in December, she said.
Bourne's main responsibility, Hopkins said, will be communication with local soil and water boards about implementing tributary strategies required by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Virginia is lagging behind other Bay states in that task and now faces deadlines set by the General Assembly this year.
``She wasn't hired because she lost an election,'' Hopkins said.
The oldest of five children, Bourne was born in 1958 in Gary, Ind., where her father worked as an FBI field agent. For years, her family moved around the country, as Liddy took various jobs with the bureau, as an attorney and as an assistant prosecutor.
That was all before Watergate, for which her father later went to jail as part of the botched burglary of the Democratic National Party offices.
Bourne got her first whiff of politics in New York in the late 1960s, stuffing envelopes to help her father's failed bid for a seat in Congress.
She is a volunteer veteran of several GOP campaigns, including Allen's bid for governor, and was aided in her own drive for office by several on-the-air comments by her father during his radio talk show.
Bourne was the only candidate interviewed for the job, which was held by Don Wells until two years ago, when the Allen administration eliminated his post in a cost-cutting move.
Wells, a career state employee with 29 years of experience, said he figured that the Allen administration wanted to bring in their own people.
``That's what this whole administration has been about,'' Wells said Tuesday. He now is a private consultant.
Hopkins said he was not familiar with the reasons why the deputy director position was erased two years ago.
``The job was not filled because it could be filled,'' he said. ``The job was filled because there was a need.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Sandy Liddy Bourne
Graphic
DUTIES
Alexandra ``Sandy'' Liddy Bourne's main responsibility will be
communication with local soil and water boards about implementing
tributary strategies required by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation
Act.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND RECREATION
APPOINTMENTS by CNB