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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993                   TAG: 9308220127
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

WILDER APPEALS RULING ON AIRPORT APPOINTMENT

Gov. Douglas Wilder has appealed a lower court's decision that he illegally replaced a board member of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority.

Wilder filed his appeal Wednesday, challenging the ruling by U.S. District Judge Joyce Green to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The governor is being represented by the state attorney general's office.

Green ruled in July that Wilder had illegally replaced Daniel Alcorn, a Vienna lawyer and 11th District Democratic chairman, on the board. The judge said Wilder sought to exert political influence on an independent commission by replacing Alcorn, who has criticized the governor.

Alcorn could not be reached Saturday and a spokeswoman for Wilder did not immediately return a telephone call.

Wilder served notice then that he might appeal. The governor said the judge's decision damaged "the commonwealth's authority to name and appoint officials to interstate boards and commissions."

Wilder replaced Alcorn midway through the lawyer's six-year term on the authority board. He placed James DeFrancia, a Leesburg developer, in Alcorn's place.

Alcorn sued.

Alcorn angered Wilder by opposing the location of the Washington Redskins stadium in Alexandria. Wilder and Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke last year sought to locate the stadium at an abandoned rail yard in the city.

by CNB