Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260164
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Kathleen Wilson
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Take Gubernatorial Mingling for $100.
And the answer is: the Domino's Pizza franchise in Christiansburg and local Republicans for George Allen.
The correct response is at the end of this column. (Don't forget to phrase your answer in the form of a question.)
I once worked for a magazine in New York that was owned by two brothers. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Will, a Democrat, paid a whole bunch of money to take some of us to a fund-raising luncheon for Michael Dukakis. (We took the subway.)
Jeff- not to be outdone - shelled out similar big bucks for us to drink cold coffee in a cavernous room with George Bush. (Jeff sprang for taxis.)
Most of us don't work for ultra-competitive millionaire brothers. That's probably why most of us don't get a chance to hobnob with the goobersmoochers on such high plains.
In fact, most of us don't even feel we can afford to give the IRS that dollar to the Presidential Campaign Fund when we file our taxes.
What we know of the candidates we learn from carefully orchestrated speeches and press conferences. To get the chance to form that gut opinion of what you feel in a handshake and see in their eyes, you've got to have money. Probably a lot of it.
But in the midst of all the current gubernatorial warfare, maybe we could try this mingling thing out with Mary Sue Terry and George Allen.
Not at a press conference or public rally where, let's face it, anybody could go.
No, let's shoot for one of those highfalutin invitation-only fund-raisers. The kind us regular folks just don't get to go to.
There were just a couple of major obstacles.
First, reporters are usually persona non grata at such affairs.
Second, it seemed out of the question that this newspaper would pay for me to attend just so I could report back that everyone wore gray suits and ate ham biscuits.
But, what the heck? We gave it a shot.
"She has no sense of humor," I was warned of Mary Sue Terry. "She'll never go for it."
"He'll be great," I was promised of George Allen. "He's just a regular, accessible guy."
I'll fess up. That's pretty much what I assumed, too.
In fact, some six months ago a woman called the Mingling line to invite me to a reception she was having for Allen. I never forgot one of the reasons she told me I should come.
"He's so good looking!" she'd bubbled.
So when someone passed along an invitation that listed many prominent local Republicans and cordially invited us to "join them on the road to victory with George Allen, the next governor of Virginia," I thought I had it made.
What? Me worry about getting to mingle with that man with the Colgate smile who wears the cowboy boots and lives in a log cabin?
What nonsense!
Besides, I'm not exactly redefining pi in this column on a regular basis.
But it took eight phone conversations with five different people here and in Richmond to be told I couldn't attend a fund-raiser held last week at someone's home for George Allen.
"You know, you'd have to pay the $100," an Allen staffer told me.
What if I wouldn't eat anything? Or talk to anyone? All I wanted to do was observe Republicans mingling.
"We don't allow press at our fund-raisers."
OK, then what if I could get the newspaper to pony up the $100?
"We don't allow press at our fund-raisers."
Then, what if I paid $100 of my VERY OWN MONEY?
"We don't allow press at our fund-raisers."
Not even if I paid my own $100.
"We don't allow the press at our fund-raisers.
So, alas, about all I can tell you about mingling with George Allen is that it cost $100 per person to get anywhere near him - that is, if you're not a reporter - at last week's party.
There were a lot of doctors on the guest list.
And the menu included ravioli stuffed with lobster.
It only took one brief conversation with Terry staffer Lisa Myers to get into a $50-per-person fund-raiser held for the Democratic candidate a couple weeks ago at the Marketplace Center in downtown Roanoke.
This invitation-only crowd - primarily lawyers - ate ham biscuits and drank long-neck bottles of Miller Genuine Draft.
"Just please don't bother the guests," Myers instructed.
Rumor was that Terry's time was so carefully managed at such fund-raisers, she really only had time for those who made major contributions.
But when Terry arrived - a fashionable 26 minutes late - it wasn't the local Democratic honchos - David Bowers or Dick Cranwell or Bev Fitzpatrick or Howard Packett - that she made a beeline for.
Terry marched right over to where I was standing with Hollins College students Happy Barranco and Laura Onderdonk. We figure we were the only people in the room who hadn't paid to be there.
Happy and Laura were thrilled.
"She's so warm!" Happy said, after shaking hands with a woman she admires a whole lot, but didn't think she'd get to meet.
During her brief formal remarks, Terry apologized for the negative tone of the campaign and thanked everyone for their investment in the commonwealth.
"If everyone in Virginia could meet this woman in person, they'd vote for her. I just know it," one guest told me somewhat passionately.
Back to "Jeopardy!"
The answer again is: the Domino's Pizza franchise in Christiansburg and local Republicans for George Allen.
The question?
In two years of mingling, who threw the only two parties I was asked not to attend?
by CNB