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

DATE: SATURDAY, August 21, 1993                   TAG: 9308210189
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ROBERTSON LETTER IRKS GOP HEAD

The chairman of the state GOP said a fund-raising letter sent by television evangelist Pat Robertson on behalf of the party's candidate for lieutenant governor could alienate moderate voters.

"We've got to get the middle to win," and letters sent on behalf of Michael Farris don't help, Patrick M. McSweeney said Thursday.

"A pro-family evangelical who practices what he preaches is just too much for the hard-core feminists, the ACLU and others on the left," Robertson wrote in the Aug. 11 letter. "Now the radical left is going after Mike Farris."

The letter says Farris' campaign needs to raise $550,000 by Sept. 15 and another $1.2 million in the final six weeks before the election.

McSweeney said the perception that the party is a captive of interest groups such as the religious right contributes to the GOP's "biggest problem nationwide and in Virginia."

"I don't want to get in a fight with Pat," McSweeney added, but an appeal such as Robertson's "drives home the impression we're trying to dispel."

Farris, a political novice and evangelical Christian, said Thursday the letter was sent to Virginia conservatives. A Farris spokesman said the letter was sent to about 12,000 people from a mailing list supplied by Robertson.

Gail Nardi, a spokeswoman for Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer's re-election campaign, accused Farris and Robertson of having "a master plan for Virginia."

"If there was ever any question about Farris being the poster child of the radical right, this clears it up," said Lewis Roth, policy officer of the National Jewish Democratic Council.

"Any Republican who wants to help me, I'm thrilled," said Farris, adding that "Ronald Reagan had Pat Robertson's help, and so do I."

Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, Robertson's political organization, said the Farris campaign "sent us a draft of the letter; Pat made a few changes and signed it."

Robertson signed similar appeals for President Bush last year and for Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in 1990, Reed said.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB