THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611040068
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANNE GEARAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: 77 lines
Sen. John Warner gave his opponent a tongue-lashing Sunday for suggesting that the candidates' similar names could work to Democrat Mark Warner's advantage on Election Day.
Mark Warner had remarked in print that being the first Warner listed on the ballot will be worth a couple of percentage points Tuesday.
His campaign theorizes that some ill-informed John Warner supporters will mistake Mark Warner for the 18-year incumbent.
Speaking before a Republican rally at a Northern Virginia fire station, John Warner angrily jabbed his finger at the newspaper article and called Mark Warner's assertion an example of how much the political novice has to learn about Virginia politics.
``Virginia voters are intelligent and fair-minded,'' John Warner said. ``They are not going to make a mistake.''
John Warner has led handily in opinion polls since winning re-nomination for a fourth term in June, although a Richmond Times-Dispatch poll released Sunday shows the contest tightening. John Warner was preferred by 44 percent, to 33 percent for Mark Warner.
The race marks the first time Republican and Democratic Senate candidates with the same last name have faced off since the Constitution was amended to allow direct election of senators in 1913, according to Congressional Quarterly's ``Guide to U.S. Elections.''
A coin toss determined that Mark Warner's name will be listed above John Warner's on the ballot.
Both Warners, who are not related, have in the past discounted the notion that voters won't know who is who.
``They can understand it,'' John Warner said of the state's approximately 3 million voters. ``You (Mark Warner) don't understand them.''
Neither man's party identification will be listed on the ballot. As a result, both campaigns have stressed the candidates' first names.
Mark Warner, a multimillionaire telecommunications executive making his first bid for office, has aired about $9 million worth of television ads introducing himself to voters and needling John Warner as an aloof career politician.
The Times-Dispatch poll indicated that blacks are the only demographic group where Mark Warner leads, with 71 percent of their support to 26 percent for John Warner.
Mark Warner campaigned at black churches in southeast Virginia on Sunday, where his speeches met enthusiastic crowds and several ``Amen'' choruses.
In Norfolk, the Second Calvary Baptist Church's pastor, the Rev. Geoffrey Guns, noted that Mark Warner had been to the church twice during the campaign. John Warner never stopped there, Guns said.
Guns said he could not tell the church members for whom to vote.
``But remember there are two Warners running: there is a John and then there is a Mark. . . . You want to remember to `mark' the spot on your ballot,'' he said.
The congregation laughed and applauded loudly. Mark Warner smiled.
``I ask very humbly for your support come Tuesday,'' Mark Warner told about 1,200 people at Faith Deliverance Christian Center, a Pentecostal church.
The Democrat pledged to fight for student loans, health care reform, computers in schools and other issues that will affect people's opportunity to succeed.
He also asked the congregation to pray for him so that if he wins the election, ``the words I said to you this morning will be the way I carry on this job.''
Both candidates plan to fly to major cities in Virginia today for the last push before the election. ILLUSTRATION: GARY C. KNAPP
Mark Warner, center, exchanges greetings with members of Faith
Deliverance Christian Center, a Pentecostal church, in Norfolk after
Sunday services.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. George F. Allen, left, talks with Sen. John Warner during a
break at a campaign rally Sunday in Fairfax.
KEYWORDS: SENATE RACE VIRGINIA 1996 CANDIDATES by CNB