DATE: Monday, June 9, 1997                  TAG: 9706090073

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   31 lines

DOLAN: EARLEY MADE DEAL WITH CHRISTIAN COALITION

Bill Dolan, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, accused Republican hopeful Sen. Mark Earley of Chesapeake on Sunday of ``making a deal'' with the Christian Coalition for its key political support.

The charge comes as voters prepare for Tuesday's Republican primary to choose a candidate for attorney general, the state's top laywer. The winner will face Dolan in balloting in November.

It also comes in the wake of an article in Saturday's Virginian-Pilot, in which two Republican officials complained that the Christian Coalition's voters' guide contains misleading information about another GOP hopeful, Sen. Ken Stolle of Virginia Beach.

The coalition has denied issuing any misleading statements in its guide, distributed to 500,000 registered voters. And likewise Earley, a conservative known for his pro-life initiatives in the General Assembly, has said he sees nothing wrong in the guide.

Distribution of the guide - which some political observers say will determine the winner of the GOP primary - ``amounts to the equivalent of a $100,000 unreported contribution to the Earley campaign,'' Dolan's campaign charged.

Without providing specifics, Dolan said Earley and the coalition have ``teamed up'' to ``try and win the primary by the use of classic, last-minute, distortion of Mr. Earley's key rival for Christian Coalition voters,'' meaning Stolle, according to a Dolan campaign release.

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