THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 10, 1996 TAG: 9606100049
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: DECISION 96
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 194 lines
Party loyalty or personal conscience?
The issue may not be foremost on most voters' minds for Tuesday's Republican Senate primary. But their choice of incumbent John W. Warner or challenger James C. Miller III will be seen as an important statement on which of the two values is more important.
Warner faces a tough challenge in a primary election where the main issue isn't so much his performance over 18 years in office as it is loyalty to his party.
The dispute may seem petty to some voters who will decide whether to renominate Warner or replace him with Miller, a former federal budget chief. The winner will face Democrat Mark R. Warner, an Alexandria businessman.
To many activists in the Republican Party, however, a core value is at stake.
Was Warner's refusal to support two Republican nominees for statewide office a gutsy expression of conscience that should be rewarded with another term? Or was it an act of treason that should be punished by his removal from office?
``I'd rather have a Democrat in there for six years than live with Warner for one more day,'' said Charles Curtis, 64. He and his wife Janie, longtime party activists, attended a campaign event for Miller last week in Danville. They like Miller, but it's Warner who ignites their ire.
``He betrayed us,'' added Janie Curtis, 62. ``And we're the ones who put him there.''
In an election when even Miller supporters talk more about the sins of Warner than the assets of their candidate, thoughts about the qualities of leadership and loyalty to a political party vs. loyalty to conscience appear to be concerns for voters.
At a campaign stop Saturday at a Fairfax fair, retired federal worker Oscar Maston wished Warner well. ``I think he stands for things that he thinks are right,'' Maston said. ``Isn't that the most important quality we want in an elected official?''
George Dugger, a Haymarker air conditioner installer, said, ``He's the only Republican I ever vote for. He's a moderate. I think he's a good man. I could care less about his problems with other Republicans.
``Those Republicans who are going after him are just a bunch of crybabies.''
Miller acknowledges that he might not be a candidate today if Warner had not opposed former Iran-Contra figure Oliver L. North's 1994 bid for the U.S. Senate and refused to endorse home-schooling leader Michael P. Farris' 1993 run for lieutenant governor. Many Republicans hold Warner responsible for both men's defeats.
``Under ordinary circumstances, a three-term incumbent U.S. senator would be unassailable,'' Miller said. ``But the fact that he has offended so many conservatives in the party means that people are willing to look at someone else.''
Many GOP loyalists bristle at the suggestion that Virginians have no stake in their fight with Warner. The strength of a political party, they say, lies in the principle that its leaders support every nominee.
The role of political parties, said former state GOP chairman Patrick M. McSweeney, is to give voters clear choices in elections.
``If the party's voice is not expressed by the people it has elected, then the message becomes confusing to voters,'' McSweeney said.
Warner's disloyalties, he added, are dispiriting to party activists who adhere to the discipline of supporting and working for whoever wins the party's nomination.
``When you get 14,000 people two years in a row at the Richmond Coliseum,'' said McSweeney, referring to the GOP conventions that nominated Farris and North, ``and you get one person saying `I don't care, I'm going the other way,' the activists start thinking, `What's the point of doing anything when one person can sabotage everything?' ''
Warner responds that party loyalty must take a back seat to obeying one's heart. ``The issue,'' he says, ``is whether a politician can follow his conscience and be re-elected.''
Many Republican leaders say Warner wouldn't be in trouble today if he had simply kept his mouth shut. ``It would have been acceptable if he expressed his dissent by remaining silent and sitting out the election,'' said Jim Ferriera, an Abingdon activist. ``But he crossed the line by speaking out and starting a third party.''
The repercussions of Warner's decision to recruit and back the candidacy of Independent J. Marshall Coleman instead of North are still being felt. Because Coleman received more than 10 percent of the vote, Independents have won official third-party status in Virginia and are entitled to an automatic slot on state ballots.
Warner says he would have failed as a leader if he had remained silent. ``You bet, I could have said nothing,'' he said. ``But that was not why I was elected. I was elected to give my best, my honest judgment on all issues and to exercise leadership.
``I can't yield my independence to a political party or anyone else,'' he said. ``If I can't be my own man, then I can't feel good about my work.''
Among Warner's supporters is M. Caldwell Butler, a congressman from Roanoke who was one of the first Republicans to break with his party in 1974 and support the impeachment of then-President Richard M. Nixon.
``John knew what the risks were when he made these decisions, and he did it anyway,'' said Butler, who said the increasingly religious conservative tone of the state GOP has made it difficult for moderates, such as Warner, to fit in. ``I don't think you can characterize it as anything else but courageous.
``I don't think the public cares all that much about party,'' Butler added. ``I don't think they elect people to go up there and follow the marching orders of whatever the party tells them to do.''
The discussion about loyalty symbolizes other differences between Warner and Miller. In general, the two candidates don't disagree on many issues. What separates them is that Miller is running to the right of Warner and promises to be a much more consistent conservative vote on social issues such as abortion and gun control. ``Unlike John Warner, I'll be there when the party needs me,'' he said.
``No one is saying John Warner doesn't have a right to vote his conscience,'' Miller said. ``But the question is where does John Warner's conscience lead him?''
Miller's campaign is centered on the core of conservative activists who are highly motivated to vote against Warner and urge others to do so. North gave a rousing endorsement to Miller last weekend at the GOP state convention in Salem. Farris has been urging his home-schooling followers to back Miller. The Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition, founded by religious broadcaster M.G. ``Pat'' Robertson, is distributing 750,000 copies of voter's guides that portray Miller in a positive light over Warner.
Typically, about 15 percent of the state's almost 3 million voters participate in Republican primaries. Political scientists says Miller's best chance of winning would come from a below-average turnout dominated by party insiders, Christian conservatives and gun-rights advocates.
Warner is seeking to take full advantage of the fact that all voters - not just Republicans - can vote in the primary. He is seeking to broaden participation, advertising heavily on television and urging independents and business conservatives to cast ballots.
Warner has raised about three times as much money as Miller, who has been unable to respond to Warner's negative television commercials because he can't afford video ads of his own. And Warner is betting that the vast majority of the electorate simply won't care about his battles within the Republican Party.
``There are roughly 700,000 people in this state who share Republican goals,'' Warner said outside the GOP state convention last week where Miller handily won a straw poll of delegates. ``How many of them do you think are here?''
The answer was about 3,000. MEMO: Staff writer Robert Little contributed to this report.
Candidate profiles/A4
[Related story on page A4.] ILLUSTRATION: James C. Miller III says that he might not be a
candidate if Warner had not strayed from the party.
GARY C. KNAPP
John Warner, here at a campaign stop Sunday in Surry, has said, ``I
can't yield my independence to a political party or anyone else.''
Voting in the primary
Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 11. Election Day.
Virginia Republicans hold a primary to choose a U.S. Senate
candidate.
Any Virginia registered voter is eligible to vote in the primary.
A REPUBLICAN SENATE SHOWDOWN
Election Day: Tuesday
Polls open: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Virginia Republicans hold a primary to choose a U.S. Senate
candidate. Any Virginia registered voter is eligible to vote in the
primary. If you're not sure if you're registered or if you want to
check your polling place, call your local registrar or the State
Board of Elections in Richmond at 1-800-552-9745.
ON THE BALLOT
James C. Miller III
Home: McLean, Va.
Born: June 25, 1942, in Conyers, Ga.
Education: University of Georgia, B.B.A., 1964; U.Va., Ph.D.,
1969.
Occupation: Economist.
Public career: Chairman, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 1981-85;
director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 1985-88.
"Isn't it about time Virginia had in the United States Senate a
Reagan Republican instead of a Clinton Republican?''
John W. Warner
Home: Alexandria, Va.
Born: February 18, 1927, in Washington, D.C.
Education: Washington & Lee University, B.S., 1949; U.Va., LL.B.
1953.
Occupation: U.S. Senator
Public career: Navy, 1944-46; Marine Corps, 1950-52; assistant
U.S. attorney, 1956-60; undersecretary of the Navy, 1969-72;
secretary of the Navy, 1972-74; director of the American
Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission, 1974-76; U.S. Senate,
1978-present.
"My campaign will answer this question: Can an elected leader
vote his conscience, putting principle before politics, and win?"
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN PRIMARY SENATE RACE by CNB