Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Speaking at news conferences/rallies on courthouse steps in Arlington and then Roanoke, Terry pumped her promise to protect abortion rights in Virginia while painting Republican George Allen as a "tool" of extremists ready to turn back the clock on abortion rights.
"The radical right knows that George Allen will interject government into one of the most personal and private decisions that any woman faces," Terry told cheering supporters. "George Allen insults the women of Virginia by saying we don't have the intelligence or the judgment to exercise the right to choose."
The abortion issue is part of Terry's final effort to distinguish herself from Allen among an electorate that to a large extent has not tuned in to either candidate, the latest polls suggest.
With a week to go and polls showing Terry trailing Allen by more than 10 percentage points, Terry said she will focus on three "defining" issues: support for abortion rights, public education and a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
By contrast, Allen supports a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion, parental notice before an unmarried minor's abortion, vouchers for private school attendance and no gun controls.
Terry was joined in Arlington by Kate Michelman, president of the Washington-based National Abortion Rights Action League, who warned that Allen is beholden to "flag bearers of the religious right" - Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
Allen has received a $10,000 contribution from Robertson. He has received nothing from Falwell, according to recent campaign finance reports.
Allen supporters were holding their own news conference about the same time Monday morning in neighboring Fairfax County.
Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, Robertson's political-action arm, accused Terry and Lt. Gov. Don Beyer of religious bigotry.
"These tactics have backfired," Reed said. "Those employing the negative attacks are dropping like rocks in the polls."
"The bottom line is that Pat Robertson's political machine has little to do with religion," Terry responded. "It is a tool conceived, designed and financed to impose Pat Robertson's radical right agenda and to elect George Allen governor."
While her abortion stance went over well with small but enthusiastic crowds of about 50 people in Arlington and Roanoke, Terry's stand on gun control threatened to divide her from Democrats in Western Virginia.
Heading to Covington, where she shook hands with Westvaco paper mill workers during a shift change, Terry was confronted by denim-clad employees who told her they couldn't back her because she favors a waiting period for handgun purchases.
"I think you'd make a fine governor. But I can't vote for you, because you're anti-gun," said Charles Campbell, 55, exiting the plant with a lunch bucket in his hand.
"I understand," Terry said. "But I'm not anti-gun." She told him she supports the waiting period so a more thorough background check can be conducted on gun buyers.
Campbell said he couldn't understand Terry calling for a five-day wait to buy a gun and no wait for women to have abortions.
"I'm not saying don't have abortions," Campbell said. "I think that should be up to a young girl, her parents and her doctor. That's her choice. It will be on her conscience.
"But to have a five-day waiting period because you're afraid someone will take someone's life, and not have a 24-hour waiting period for a young girl to take a life . . . " his voice trailed off.
Helping to soften the blows was Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, a Terry backer who also is among the legislature's most ardent opponents of gun controls.
Thomas, unopposed in this election, was at the plant gate handing out Terry literature. "We're going to have to work" to sell Terry in Western Virginia, he said. He reminded the Westvaco workers that as attorney general, Terry shut down the Kim-Stan landfill in Alleghany County that threatened the Jackson River.
"You've got to face facts and not sound bites," Thomas said. "We're really going to have to work."
\ The latest figures\ Virginia Commonwealth University poll\ \ George Allen - 50%\ Mary Sue Terry - 38%\ Undecided - 12%\
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB