DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710030671

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  104 lines

CAMPAIGN FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL GROWING ACRIMONIOUS

The race for attorney general turned acrimonious Thursday night, as GOP candidate Mark Earley and Democratic hopeful Bill Dolan traded increasingly bitter and assaultive accusations during a debate sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division.

The tightly timed, televised event gave each candidate 90 seconds to answer written questions from an audience composed largely of supporters and local politicos. They got 30 seconds for rebuttals. Those time limitations, however, did not hinder either man from engaging in relentless and high-spirited self-promotion and sniping.

``It was a long and involved case,'' Dolan told Earley after Earley attacked him for billing the state more than $300,000 for prosecuting former Norfolk District Court Judge Joseph Campbell.

``You may not be intimately familiar with long, involved cases.''

Dolan, whose style is ordinarily laid-back, stayed on the offensive.

He classified Earley's 1994 legislative request to exempt from taxes a project of Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson as ``poor judgment'' and ``a misuse of power.''

He repeatedly accused Earley of wanting to deny abortions to pregnant rape and incest victims and of working to undermine public education and the lottery.

For a final flourish, he produced two Senate bills introduced by Earley which sought to change the penalties for manufacturing and possessing marijuana. Earley said the bills sought to clarify the law. Dolan said they lessened penalties.

For his part, Earley referred constantly to his Senate record and his legislative role in issues like parole abolition, parental notification of minors who seek abortions, welfare reform and the victims rights amendment to the Virginia Constitution. He denounced Dolan for his lack of support for parole reform and rebuked him for his use in a press conference earlier this week of a prop designed to look like a large cardboard check made out to Earley from Pat Robertson.

``If you had done that in a court of law, you would have been sanctioned by the judge,'' said Earley.

The candidates took distinctly different positions on a question about ``the right to die with dignity,'' with Earley referring to a bill he introduced that would have banned physician-assisted suicide and invoking Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

``There is no need for anyone to be put in a position where they feel like their only choice is Dr. Jack Kevorkian,'' he said.

Dolan said he believed the issue is one which should be decided ``between a family and a patient and a physician. The government has no business in it.''

Dolan supports abortion rights. Earley opposes them.

The two men also took distinct positions on a question about hate crime legislation. Dolan said he would support such legislation. Earley said he voted against it because he felt the statute could be invoked for reasons of age, disability and gender as well as race and ethnic origin.

``What groups do you include? What groups do you not include? How do you justify not including all groups?'' he asked.

At the debate's end, both camps declared victory.

``We landed some blows,'' said Wesley Jacobs, a Democrat who works as an aide to Norfolk Del. Jerrauld Jones.

``We exposed some of their extreme positions and obviously he (Earley) became flustered. He got personal, and that's a sign of loss of poise. Of becoming unglued.''

Nonsense, countered Earley aide Anne Kincaid.

``I thought it went very well. I thought Mark really exposed some of (Dolan's) distortions.''

The Attorney General debate will be rebroadcast on Local News on Cable on Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

GARY C. KNAPP

Mark L. Earley, left, and William D. Dolan III are advised by the

timekeeper during Thursday night's debate in Portsmouth. The

debate was sponsored by a division of the Virginia Bar Association.

Graphic

MARK EARLEY

Republican

Born: July 26, 1954, in Norfolk

Family: Wife: Cynthia; Children: Rachel, Justin, Mark Jr., Mary