THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 57 lines
In a GOP convention Saturday in Salem, Oliver L. North all but co-opted James C. Miller III's race against U.S. Sen. John W. Warner.
North urged all those who voted for him in his unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 1994 against Democrat Charles S. Robb to turn out in the June 11 Republican primary and vote for Miller.
But North's call also may awaken those who voted against North two years ago to cast their votes for Warner.
Many Republicans, as well as Democrats and independents, are grateful to Warner for declaring in 1994 that North, a leading figure in Iran-Contra scheming, was unfit for the Senate. He recruited Republican Marshall Coleman to enter what became a three-way race in the 1994 general election.
In the present Warner-Miller campaign, North had pledged to remain neutral. But in January he laid out specifications for a senator that seemed designed for Miller.
Saturday in Salem, North cast aside coyness. He gave Miller a hug and a check for $500, disclosed he was sending nationwide a fund-raising appeal for Miller, and urged the 3,000 delegates to pitch in $20 apiece for Miller's campaign.
Finally, North hinted he may run again for the Senate in the year 2000, which would be by no means a sure shot inasmuch as he might find himself confronted for the GOP nomination by George F. Allen, no longer governor but never without political ambition.
North's remarks drew a jubilant outcry - ``I will be your friend for life!'' - from buoyant, bouncing Miller, who had hotly opposed North for the GOP nomination in 1994.
Warner's choice as the incumbent to run in a primary, rather than a convention controlled by his foes, has irked the GOP right-wing hierarchy. So there was a straw vote Saturday, which Miller won by a 3-to-1 ratio. A reactivated North heightens tension further in the final week.
A popular figure across Virginia's political spectrum and with his Democratic and Republican brethren in the Senate, Warner is next in line to succeed 93-year-old Strom Thurmond as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
That post, his supporters contend, would enhance Warner's already keen watch over the needs of Hampton Roads shipyards, including Newport News Shipbuilding and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth as well as the Norfolk Naval Base and other military installations.
A harmony breakfast Sunday, hosted by Allen, boiled over in discord when Miller objected to a meeting scheduled for Saturday in McLean between Warner and Sen. Bob Dole.
The GOP hierarchy appears to prefer vengeance to victory, a strategy in which Virginia would be the big loser. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Oliver L. North
James C. Miller
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner by CNB