DATE: Thursday, May 8, 1997                 TAG: 9705080373

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   66 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** A story on Thursday's Hampton Roads front incorrectly identified the presumed Democratic candidate for state attorney general this year. He is Northern Virginia lawyer William Dolan. Correction published Saturday, May 10, 1997 on page A2 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** EARLEY, STOLLE TOP GOP FIELD IN ATTORNEY GENERAL POLL

The Republican primary election for attorney general is shaping up as a race between two public service veterans from Hampton Roads, according to a poll released Wednesday.

According to Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research, state Sen. Mark Earley of Chesapeake and state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach are running ahead of two other candidates.

But neither Earley nor Stolle is measuring office space in Richmond yet. Most people in Virginia say they don't know any of the four candidates in the race, and voter turnout is expected to be low.

``You are probably part of the small slice of Virginia that is actually paying attention and knows there is an election,'' said Earley, who along with his three opponents, spoke Wednesday night to a group of James City County and Williamsburg Republicans.

In the poll, Earley was the choice of 14 percent of likely Republican voters and Stolle received 13 percent. Former state Public Safety Secretary Jerry Kilgore got 9 percent and Northern Virginia attorney Gil Davis received 5 percent.

Democratic candidate L.F. Payne would beat Davis and Kilgore, if the November election were held today, the poll shows, but would lose to Earley or Stolle.

No one would win by more than 4 percent of the vote.

Considering the tight numbers and the poll's 5.5 percent margin of error, political observers agree that five weeks from the June 10 primary, the outcome is still anyone's guess.

The most revealing statistics in the poll show that two-thirds of the voters don't even recognize any of the four candidates, and of those who do, most have neither favorable nor unfavorable opinions of them. And Mason-Dixon said 334 of the 812 registered voters polled planned to vote, but none of the candidates expects more than 10 percent of Virginia voters to show up on election day.

And while Davis trails the group, he packs some unpredictable firepower: money. The wealthy lawyer has planned since entering the race to concentrate on an expensive media barrage during the race's final weeks.

``All the political pundits are saying it's going to be a close race,'' Kilgore said at the Williamsburg gathering. ``It's going to be determined by who shows up.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

Sen. Mark Earley of Chesapeake

Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach KEYWORDS: POLL ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE

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