DATE: Wednesday, June 4, 1997               TAG: 9706040467

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   51 lines

EARLEY FACES CRITICS AND ENGAGES IN A DUEL OVER STAND ON UNIONS

Attorney General candidate Mark L. Earley decided Tuesday to confront his critics head-on.

The Chesapeake Republican attended a news conference called by leaders of the National Right to Work Committee to criticize Earley for being weak in supporting a state law banning mandatory union membership.

Committee President Reed Larson welcomed Earley and several supporters to the news conference. Then Larson panned the state senator for helping to introduce an unsuccessful 1991 bill that would have required workers to reimburse unions for providing representation in collective bargaining.

Larson ridiculed Earley's often-repeated explanation that he initially misunderstood the bill and then quickly distanced himself from the legislation after realizing it would erode the right-to-work law.

``It is incomprehensible that anyone who says he wants to be Virginia's attorney general - the commonwealth's top lawyer - would use ignorance of the law as an excuse,'' Larson said.

Larson announced that the committee would launch a statewide newspaper advertising campaign this week urging voters to ``Please tell Sen. Mark Earley: Don't wreck Virginia's right-to-work law.''

As soon as Larson stepped off the platform to end the news conference, Earley took his place. He accused Larson of giving only ``half the story,'' and omitting Earley's subsequent support of efforts to make non-compulsory union membership a national law and part of the state Constitution.

``I made a mistake in 1991,'' Earley said. ``But for anyone to suggest I would wreck Virginia's right-to-work law is incomprehensible to me,'' Earley said.

Earley was accompanied by two conservative pro-business senators who are backing his candidacy: Republican leader Joseph B. Benedetti of Richmond and Walter A. Stosch of Henrico County.

Benedetti made an attempt to enter the fray when he said to Earley: ``It sounds to me like he (Larson) accepts your position but faults you because you were stupid enough not to understand the bill.''

``Mr. Stupid Attorney General,'' Larson replied, ``is that what you're saying we need?''

Earley is among four candidates for attorney general in the June 10 GOP primary. Also running are state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach; Jerry G. Kilgore, a former state secretary of public safety; and Gilbert K. Davis, a Northern Virginia lawyer who, among other endeavors, represents Paula Jones in a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Attorney general candidate Mark L. Earley of Chesapeake accuses his

critic of giving only ``half the story.''

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