Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And the two-time losing gubernatorial candidate said the media's preoccupation with polls during political campaigns is competing for attention with legitimate issues.
Coleman, who lost by about 7,000 votes in last year's gubernatorial race, claimed Wilder has borrowed heavily from Coleman's own plan for Virginia in crafting the brand of moderate social and conservative monetary politics Wilder calls the "New Mainstream."
Coleman joked that he has considered writing a follow-up to a campaign booklet he produced last year, so Wilder "will have some things to do in the second year of his administration."
Speaking Saturday to the Washington-area chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Coleman said he intends to be a watchdog of the Wilder administration in the next four years. Without scrutiny, Coleman said, Virginia Republicans will face a tough time convincing voters in the next election of a need for a change.
For now, Coleman said, he will reserve serious criticism of Wilder. But Coleman was less restrained in criticizing the performance of reporters in last year's contest, though he was careful to say he does not blame the media for his loss.
In one of his first public appearances since the Nov. 7 election, Coleman said the attention given polls in general is changing the role of reporters from chroniclers of events to "major players" in the political process.
Several polls released in the final days of the 1989 race showed Wilder with a double-digit lead in a contest that turned out to be the closest in Virginia history.
Citing the most influential of those polls, conducted by The Washington Post, Coleman said erroneous polls are "a serious problem" for candidacies.
A negative poll halts the momentum of a campaign, hinders fund-raising and dampens enthusiasm, he said. Because the results are widely and frequently reported, campaigns design their schedules to make announcements or charges in time to influence the public when pollsters are collecting opinions, he said.
But Coleman said the attention given to polling information "serve the effect of distracting enormously from the issues."
In his most recent race, Coleman said a central issue he raised - a charge that the state was headed for financial trouble - was virtually ignored by reporters.
The Republican said he issued three dozen reports, releases and speeches on that topic. He also formed a commission to examine the state's financial health but complained Saturday that "I literally could not get reporters to come" to its meetings.
"The campaign became a mirror image of the Wilder administration," Coleman said of the post-election announcement of declining revenues and a winter legislature dominated by tight money. "The circumstances that seemed so grave in late November were not even a cloud on the horizon in October."
Wilder has won bipartisan praise for his stingy budgetary proposals and his push for a $200 million reserve in the two-year budget.
Paul Goldman, a key campaign strategist for Wilder and now chairman of the state Democratic Party, ridiculed Coleman's remarks later Saturday.
"I get the same reaction listening to Marshall Coleman talk about fiscal responsibility that I get listening to Donald Trump talk about monogamy," Goldman said as he added up Coleman's campaign debts from gubernatorial bids in 1981, 1989 and a failed effort to win the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 1985.
"He's left more than $1 million in debts."
Wilder was written off in the polls during his race for lieutenant governor in 1985 but won despite them, Goldman said.
And Goldman disputed the claim that Wilder has swiped Coleman's plan for governing. He recalled that in 1986, when the legislature passed a tax increase of nearly $1 billion a year to pay for transportation, Wilder warned that the plan lacked adjustments for inflation and was headed for trouble.
A number of leaders in both parties have said they believe Coleman may run for office again, but he declined to confirm that speculation Saturday.
Coleman said he is not considering a campaign now, but immediately added that he intends to remain active in politics to "help the Republican Party of Virginia find its voice."
by CNB