GOP CANDIDATE'S FAR-RIGHT VIEWS COULD SPARK FIGHT

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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303070140
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GOP CANDIDATE'S FAR-RIGHT VIEWS COULD SPARK FIGHT
He believes that practically all abortions should be outlawed, that the state Board of Education should be abolished, and that homosexuality runs counter to the family values government should be promoting.
Meet Michael P. Farris, the man of the hour in state Republican politics. The 41-year-old Loudoun County lawyer is running for lieutenant governor and, thus far, has showed surprising strength in signing up delegates to support him at the state GOP convention this spring.
Few political activists think Farris will win his nomination fight against Bobbie Kilberg, a relative moderate who was a White House adviser to George Bush and supports abortion rights. But most believe he is strong enough to keep Kilberg from locking up the nomination before the convention and could force a potentially embarrassing floor fight.
As the victory-starved GOP seeks to shed its image as a party captive of the evangelical right and to relegate abortion debate to the back burner, Farris has become a rallying point for deeply conservative views.
He also is an enigma to many longtime party activists. Farris, who has lived in Virginia since 1982, never has sought office before and has had limited involvement in state GOP affairs.
Nationally, however, he is possibly the leading advocate of a movement to secure rights for parents who want to educate their children at home rather than in public or private schools. He is the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Fund, a national organization of about 29,000 families.
In Virginia, about 7,000 families belong to his group, and many have been showing up across the state this winter to sign up as Farris delegates to the state convention. Also joining the coalition are evangelicals, anti-abortion groups and a host of other highly conservative concerns.
Farris has not been endorsed by televangelist Pat Robertson, who is likely to attend the state convention as an uncommitted delegate. Even so, Farris receives high marks from Ralph Reed, director of Robertson's Christian Coalition. "I think you'd find most of our members would be sympathetic to his platform," Reed said.
But the Kilberg campaign paints Farris as an extremist and is concerned that he could once again divide the fractious GOP, which has won only two statewide elections in the past 11 years.
"Mr. Farris has shown that he does not choose to be a mainstream candidate," said Bruce Hildebrand, Kilberg's campaign manager. "He has his own issues, and if you don't agree with him, you're not included. If we, as Republicans, try to dictate to all people along a narrow line of beliefs, we cannot count on broad support."
Farris, who educates his own eight children at home, is not a fan of public education. He believes the state Board of Education should be eliminated and control over schools be given to localities, parents and teachers. "Those of us who argue that public education is necessary to the preservation of our democracy are wrong," he once wrote in a book called "Home Schooling and the Law."
"I believe public schools have gone too far in driving out the vestiges of our religious heritage," he said in an interview last week. "I believe schools are trying to inculcate values in our children. If we teach that homosexuality is just another alternative lifestyle, that's wrong."
Farris argues for broad tax credits for parents who do not send their children to public schools. He opposes all abortions except when a mother's life is in danger. He opposes all forms of gun control. He criticizes Kilberg for inviting gay groups to the White House to witness the signing of a hate-crimes bill.
Among Farris' most visible supporters is ChristyAnne Collins, a Northern Virginia anti-abortion activist who has been arrested more than 40 times for demonstrating in front of abortion clinics and confronting patients with dead fetuses. Farris also is receiving strong support from Donald Wildmon of Tupelo, Miss., president of the American Family Association, which encourages boycotts of companies that advertise on "filthy" television shows.
In all, it's not a group that mainstream Republicans look forward to showcasing this spring.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB