
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005180714
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

CARVER NEW DEMOCRATIC DIRECTOR

Harry Carver of Christiansburg officially was named executive director of the state Democratic Party on Wednesday amid suggestions that his appointment was a payoff to labor unions for nearly $1 million they spent getting Democrats elected last year.

Carver worked for AT&T and was a volunteer with the Communications Workers of America before he joined Gov. Douglas Wilder's campaign last year as field director for Southwest Virginia.

Steve Haner, executive director for the Republicans' Joint Legislative Caucus, said it was not a coincidence that Carver was picked shortly after the Democratic Labor Caucus distributed a report emphasizing "how much labor did" for Democratic candidates last year.

Carver won the job over two other candidates - Martha Pulley, a veteran party activist, and Diane Martin, the party's finance and operations director and daughter of Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke.

"There was a power struggle over there [at Democratic headquarters] and the labor guy won," Haner said.

Danny LeBlanc, secretary-treasurer of the Virginia AFL-CIO, said it was "absurd" to suggest that Carver's appointment by state party Chairman Paul Goldman was a payoff.

Though organized labor spent about $933,000 in 1989 in support of the statewide Democratic ticket and several Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates, LeBlanc said it did so "on the basis of issues" and not because it expected any appointments in return.

Le Blanc said the Democratic Labor Caucus - a group of Democratic Central Committee members "who happen to be union members" - distributed the report because labor long has been the Democrats' "largest constituency group in the state." Its members "felt it was important that the central committee know of labor's commitment."

The AFL-CIO leader said "we feel comfortable working in the Democratic Party." But at the same time he stressed that labor occasionally supports Republican and independent candidates whom it feels are right on the issues.

Le Blanc said about 40 percent of the $933,000 went to the Democratic Joint Campaign Committee, which ran Wilder's voter-mobilization effort.

Carver and Goldman were not available for comment Wednesday. Earlier, however, Goldman dismissed suggestions that Carver's appointment was a reward for labor's help.

by CNB