Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9309270154
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
He was to face his opponent, Arlington native and McLean lawyer Bill Dolan, in a joint appearance before the Fairfax County Democratic Party, Updike recalled.
"About 200 people showed up. I was flown in from Danville by a friend.
"But Bill knew that area of the state. That was his backyard. As soon as I walked in the door, Bill came up to me, shook my hand and pointed out certain people in the room that I should know and needed to speak to, like the county chairman and some others," Updike said.
"That happened in a couple of other places, too. Bill was so hospitable and kind, especially in a situation where circumstances could have been different. The fact that we were competing made it all the more impressionable to me."
Dolan, who overwhelmed Updike in party caucuses a few weeks later, has made a habit of winning such unlikely friends.
For instance, lawyers he beat in a highly publicized case he prosecuted against a former Norfolk judge, and who in turn beat him on appeal, speak admiringly of his skills and personality.
But the lanky, dark-haired former high school basketball player, whose chin runs into his neck and whose voice sounds more suited to the mellifluous world of late-night radio than the cacophony of politics, has not made much of an impression on the electorate.
Recent polls show Dolan 10 to 12 percentage points behind Republican Jim Gilmore. Almost half the voters call themselves undecided, and an even greater percentage don't recognize the name of either candidate.
While some attribute the poll results to the lack of attention focused on a "down-ticket" race, some of Dolan's supporters blame their candidate's laid-back style.
Unlike Gilmore, whom some have called aggressive almost to the point of being abrasive, Dolan has delivered an understated message on crime and law and order that seems not to have stuck.
Anthony Troy, a former Virginia attorney general now in a private law practice, said Dolan's message "may very well have to change."
"There is a fair amount - a predominant concern - today about crime," Troy said. Gilmore, Henrico County's commonwealth's attorney, "has the ability to say he is a prosecutor and will be the chief legal officer of the commonwealth."
"But the chief legal officer of the commonwealth is not a prosecutor," Troy continued. "About 80 percent or more of an attorney general's duties are in the civil, administrative and regulatory areas, but the citizens don't know that."
Other friends say Dolan, who already has put more than 70,000 campaign miles on his 1991 Buick, needs to reach more people to be effective.
"You've got to find your own style," said Robert Horan Jr., Fairfax commonwealth's attorney. "You've got to be yourself when you're out campaigning. If you're a snarling attack dog, then that's what you should be. If you're a friendly, good-natured, happy-go-lucky type, then you should be that. The voters will know if you're phony."
Dolan "has a good message, good issues," Horan said. "He's just got to get it out."
Recognizing that the outcome of the Nov. 2 election may hinge on the effectiveness of television ads in the final Dolan weeks, each campaign has been busy raising money.
Dolan has received important help there from his sister, Mary Anne, a former Los Angeles newspaper editor who is married to Brandon Stoddard, president of ABC Productions.
In two "family moments," as Mary Anne describes them, in which Dolan broke bread this summer with the Stoddards' friends in Los Angeles, the Democrat collected about $30,000 from the likes of director Garry Marshall, Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael D. Eisner and celebrity agent Michael Ovitz.
The events have provided campaign fodder for Gilmore, who depicts Dolan as a "silk-stocking, country-club lawyer," born of privilege and removed from the concerns of everyday folk.
Born in Arlington, where he still lives, Dolan grew up among professionals. His father, now 80, is a pathologist still in practice. His mother, now retired, was a nurse.
He went to Catholic elementary and high schools and enrolled in Georgetown University in Washington. The overwhelming influences there of beer and basketball forced him to transfer to Marquette University in Milwaukee "to grow up," he said.
At Marquette, Dolan met and later married Josephine E. Fitzgerald, another transfer student whom everyone calls "Jef." She earned a master's in communication; he spent a year in medical school at Georgetown before transfering to Catholic University and law.
"It was not my natural skill," Dolan said of his premed days. "The grades I earned, I worked hard for. But it was not my natural intellectual skill."
Nevertheless, he has found a way to use what he learned. For the past 10 years, Dolan has taught a medical malpractice course to students at Georgetown's School of Medicine. As a trial lawyer, he has litigated on behalf of both patients and doctors.
While Gilmore hammers Dolan's lack of prosecutorial experience, Dolan said his breadth of other experience - from dog-running-at-large cases to representing multinational corporations - makes him suited for attorney general.
Other lawyers say privately that Dolan may be damaged by claims centering around his sole case as a criminal prosecutor, the 1989 forgery trial of former Norfolk District Judge Joseph Campbell.
Campbell was accused of ordering a court clerk to alter records in a drunken driving case against then-Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Sciortino.
The judge was convicted and retired. But the conviction was overturned in June by the Virginia Supreme Court, which left open the possibility of a retrial.
In the meantime, Dolan submitted to the state a bill for more than $313,000 for the time and expenses of himself and seven other lawyers in his firm who worked on the prosecution. They ultimately were paid $121,000 - $50 per hour plus expenses. The rate is what the state customarily provides for court-appointed special prosecutors.
Norfolk Circuit Judge John Clarkson, who asked Dolan to handle the Campbell case, has said he told Dolan to bill the state at his normal fee.
Gilmore has pounded Dolan for weeks on what he labels "outrageous fees" and has called on Dolan to retry the case for free or refund the $121,000.
Dolan, who for months was silent on whether he would press the case, told reporters three weeks ago that he would make no decision until after the election.
He has tried to slough off Gilmore's attacks by citing the complexity of the case and criticizing Gilmore's record. But a highly regarded defense attorney in Richmond said it won't work.
"The public always thinks we charge too much," said the lawyer, a Democrat who asked not to be identified. "I've never had a case that paid that much. Let's face it - that's a year's salary for one of the top lawyers in town."
But Dolan has been buttressed by Troy and several other lawyers on Campbell's seven-member veteran defense team.
They have called the case far from routine and said the legal issues involved touched many areas for which there was no previous case law in Virginia.
Even Updike, who was Dolan's first critic over the bill, has softened.
"Since then, I read the appellate decision, and it was a long, involved case, not a simple forgery," Updike said.
"But there's another thing to keep in mind - Bill doesn't stick all that money into his pocket. He had a team working on it, and they all have to paid, as well as secretaries and overhead.
"When you're in a campaign, you have an obligation to draw contrasts or differences between yourself and your opponent," Updike said. "But I think this issue has been discussed so much, the impact it might have is already done. Bill prosecuted the case, and he prosecuted with vigor."
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB