THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150545
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Compiled from reports by staff writers Robert Little and
Warren Fiske and by the wire services.
LENGTH: 137 lines
Cow pasture call put Jack Kemp in the MOOoood
Jack Kemp was at a birthday party for his son-in-law in Orange County, Va., when he got The Call.
Bob Dole wanted a meeting right away, his campaign said.
Sorry, said Kemp. He was busy attending a family gathering.
A few minutes later, House Speaker Newt Gingrich called. For privacy, Kemp took the cordless phone outside and walked around in a cow pasture while he talked. After a second call from the Dole campaign, Kemp decided to cut short his stay at Scott Andrews' birthday party and meet with Dole.
That's the way T. Coleman Andrews recalls last week's events at his Virginia farm. Andrews, a Republican National Convention delegate, is Scott's brother and a longtime Kemp friend.
Jennifer Andrews of Middleburg, Va., Kemp's 33-year-old daughter, said he gave her no indication the vice presidency was on his mind when he left.
``He said, `Jennifer, I hate to do this, but I need to go meet with Senator Dole. He may need me to be an adviser or an economic spokesman.' ''
Oh, the drama of it all
VP selection? A done deal. Abortion battle? More like abortion pillow fight.
So where's the tension gonna be tonight, when Dole accepts the nomination in front of 20,000 screaming GOPsters?
Balloon drop.
The ceiling in the convention hall is only 27 feet high, so low that tonight's traditional balloon drop could end in nanoseconds. Convention adviser Michael Deaver let The Wall Street Journal in on how that would be dealt with: a balloon rise.
At the moment thousands of balloons are released from their nets in the ceiling, he said, thousands of helium-filled balloons will rise from the floor.
Could balloon gridlock result, with the waving, smiling candidates engulfed in balloons that are unable to rise or fall?
Stay tuned.
Sonny & Trixie reunited again
Trixie Averill, an exuberant delegate from Roanoke, counts herself among the rare fans of '60s singer Sonny Bono.
Between belting refrains of ``I've Got You Babe'' on a bus to the convention this week, Averill let on that she thought Bono was ``pretty cool'' when she was a teenager growing up just outside of New Orleans.
``My hair was longer then,'' she said, stroking her jet-black mane, ``and people used to tell me I looked like Cher.''
So imagine her excitement when she encountered Sonny - now known as U.S. Rep. Bono, R-Cal. - on the covention floor this week.
``Sonny!'' she exclaimed.
``Trixie!'' he exclaimed back, noting her name on the floor pass hanging like a necklace around her neck.
A moment later, Averill forced a camera on a stranger, who clicked pictures of her and Bono. They'll go in the photo album with the shots of her with Bono from the 1992 convention.
``He's a real little guy,'' she said.
Admiral jumps ship from Perot to GOP
Who is he and why is he here? The vaguely familiar face is that of retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, the much-decorated Vietnam-era prisoner of war who was Ross Perot's running mate four years ago. During the 1992 vice presidential debate, he became an instant footnote in political history when he began his remarks by saying, ``Who am I? Why am I here?''
He is here this time as a Republican member of the California delegation. On Wednesday, he sat at Bob Dole's side during a veterans rally in San Diego. Although he and Perot maintain contact and speak admiringly of each other, Stockdale says he opted to become a GOP delegate after a request from California's Republican governor, Pete Wilson, who he described as an old friend.
So many weapons, so little fight
Imagine getting a gleaming new toy and then hardly getting the chance to use it.
So it is with the Christian Coalition, which developed a computer system enabling it to poll the 1,990 convention delegates in less than an hour.
The system - code named ``Zark'' - works like this: Thirteen delegates, or regional whips, have hand-held digital computers that put them in constant contact with the Coalition's ``War Room'' on the 21st floor of the Marriott Hotel next to the convention center. Each whip has eight assistants. Each assistant is assigned to communicate with 20 delegates.
The coalition developed the system because its leaders were concerned there would be a floor fight over the GOP's abortion platform.
So much for girding for battle.
The abortion platform was worked out to the Coalition's liking before the convention. Still, there's always the millenium convention.
``We're thinking of it as a dry run for 2000,'' said Ralph Reed, the Coalition's director.
Call security, Condom Man's here
It's difficult to miss Derek Hodel at the Republican National Convention.
He's dressed in a 7-foot Condom Man costume, bouncing around the convention center, waving and posing for pictures.
``The fact that 500,000 people have been diagnosed (with HIV) doesn't get people's attention. A silly costume does,'' said Hodel, who represents the Gay Men's Health Crisis Action Inc. of New York.
As Condom Man, Hodel hopes to get Bob Dole to address the issue of AIDS education, prevention and treatment.
Hodel admits the foam-rubber yellow costume is comical, but says the issue of AIDS is serious.
Referring to the colorful red-white-and-blue clothing some delegates are wearing, he said, ``We'll meet them on their own terms. Everyone else has a silly costume.''
Etc.
For those interested in the herding instinct of the press: About 16,000 journalists are accredited to cover the convention, about eight for every delegate. . . . Convention kitsch - Among the supreme souvenirs for discriminating conventioneers: Bob Dole hand puppet; Dole pineapple soap; red, white and blue gun racks; life-size Newt Gingrich cardboard cutouts; and Bill Clinton cat toys. . . . Maybe they're watching Montel Williams - The Republican National Convention may be made for TV, but its ratings are slipping. Viewership for Tuesday's ``prime hour'' of coverage by the three major networks was 16 percent below that for the same period of the GOP's 1992 convention, and 33 percent below its Tuesday audience in 1988, according to Nielsen Media Research figures. The Family Channel's two hours of coverage produced by the Republican Party drew 329,000 households Tuesday, down from Monday's 382,000. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
On Wednesday, Trixie Averill of Roanoke met her favorite GOP
celebrity, Sonny Bono, a singing sensation of hte 60s, who is now a
California congressman. She also got a chance to shake hands with
one of Virginia's most famous Republicans, pat Robertson, above,
also a member of the Virginia delegation to the national convention.
ASSOCIATE PRESS
Bob Dole nudges former Perot running mate retired Adm. James
Stockdale during a veterans event in San Diego Wednesday.
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 by CNB