LEGAL OR NOT, SENATOR TO STAY AT HEAD START

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 2, 1992                   TAG: 9201020113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                LENGTH: Short
LEGAL OR NOT, SENATOR TO STAY AT HEAD START
L. Louise Lucas said she doesn't intend to quit her job as head of the area's federal Head Start program even though she has been elected to the state Senate.
It is illegal for state and federal employees to hold partisan office under the Hatch Act.
But Lucas, a Democrat, will be able to keep her $51,000-a-year federal job because the U.S. Office of Special Counsel failed to promptly inform her that such an arrangement is illegal.
"They're the ones who goofed, not me," Lucas said Tuesday. "I did all I was supposed to do."
In June, Lucas sought an opinion from the special counsel to find out if she was in trouble. She got an answer nearly five months later.
The letter was dated Nov. 4 - a day before the election - and stamped "received" two days after her narrow victory. The special counsel attributed the delay to a shortage of attorneys covering the Hatch Act.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB