DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997                TAG: 9704110640

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY O'DELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   42 lines

EX-FEDERAL PROSECUTOR APPEARS LIKELY CHOICE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Richard Cullen, a former federal prosecutor who was instrumental in helping Gov. George Allen abolish parole, has emerged as the top candidate to succeed Attorney General James Gilmore in June.

A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press on Thursday that Cullen told colleagues at the Richmond law firm McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe that ``he thinks the appointment is likely.''

Cullen said Allen has not offered him the job and declined further comment.

Gilmore will resign June 11, the day after the Republican primary, to run full-time for governor. Allen, also a Republican, will appoint a successor to serve the final seven months of Gilmore's term.

Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe and Gilmore praised Cullen as highly qualified for the job, but they would not confirm that he has the inside track.

``That's the governor's choice and the governor's decision,'' Gilmore said. ``I will be happy to consult with him.''

Stroupe said Allen ``has not made a final decision'' but hopes to have a successor in place before Gilmore leaves.

``Richard Cullen is obviously being considered,'' Stroupe said. ``I would not characterize that any further except to say he is an obvious leading candidate.''

Gilmore said Cullen would be ``a superb attorney general.'' Cullen briefly campaigned for the GOP nomination for the position, but dropped out of the race July 11 for unspecified personal reasons.

Cullen has allies in both the Democratic and Republican parties. While U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1991-1993, he was an architect of then-Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's one-handgun-a-month law.

He later co-chaired the commission that drafted Allen's parole abolition plan, which the General Assembly approved in 1994. Allen then appointed him to the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission.

Cullen served as a counsel to the Senate Iran-Contra investigating committee in 1987. KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE RACE

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