DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050101

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A18  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER    

DATELINE: ARLINGTON                         LENGTH:   65 lines

CLINTON RAISES $600,000 FOR BEYER, POINTS OUT HOW THEY SHARE VIEWS ON ISSUES

The going rate was $27,273 a minute. Or about $455 a second.

That's what President Clinton raised on Saturday night for the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr., with a 22-minute speech that brought an estimated $600,000.

``I want you to understand that I think this governorship is very important to the future of this county,'' Clinton said at the $1,000-a-plate dinner at the National Airport Hilton Hotel. He added, ``I am especially enthusiastic about Don Beyer.''

Before a well-heeled crowd that stood for the entire speech, Clinton never mentioned Republican nominee James S. Gilmore III by name, nor directly criticized him. Instead, the president laid out a series of issues on which he and Beyer agree.

Clinton devoted much of his speech to education. Picking up on Beyer's charges that Gilmore favors public support for private schools, the president said: ``Most (public) schools are underfunded, not overfunded. We will not make education better for the majority of people by further reducing the funding level.''

Gilmore has accused Beyer of distorting his position. The Republican says he is willing to ``consider'' taxpayer support for private academies only if it could be done without taking money away from public education.

Clinton also lauded Beyer for supporting White House efforts to develop national exams on reading and math for fourth- and eighth-graders. Gilmore has opposed the idea, saying that Virginia is capable of measuring its own students through standardized tests now being developed.

``If ever there was a conflict between reality and ideology, this is it,'' Clinton said, adding that he is perturbed by arguments that Washington should put control of education entirely in the hands of state and local governments.

``There's not a country in the world that doesn't have national tests on mathematics and reading except the United States,'' he said. The exams, he added, would show states areas in which they need to improve instruction. ``Mathematics is the same in Minnesota as it is in Vermont,'' he said.

Clinton said he and Beyer share similar philosophies in protecting the environment, welfare reform and investing in education while at the same time offering tax relief.

Beyer, in a short speech before the president's, stated his commitments to improving education, fostering public safety and protecting the environment and abortion rights.

Beyer quipped to Clinton, a golfing enthusiast: ``Mr. President, please tell the people of Virginia it's OK for me to play golf once a week when I become governor.''

Although Clinton is the biggest name Beyer has brought forth this year, his appearance was not the most prosperous fund-raising event for the campaign. Beyer advisers say they had a slightly more lucrative fund raiser earlier this year at a dinner for Northern Virginia business leaders. Vice President Al Gore raised about $500,000 on Beyer's behalf last month.

Gilmore's celebrity fund-raisers have included former President George Bush, former Vice President Dan Quayle and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gilmore raised slightly more than $1 million from a series of events on April 3.

As of Aug. 31, Beyer and Gilmore jointly had raised more than $10 million. A number of polls show that the two are statistically tied.

Mark A. Miner, a spokesman for Gilmore, was dismissive of the president's appearance for Beyer. ``It's only fitting because they both come from the same liberal mode,'' he said. KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE VIRGINIA

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