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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993                   TAG: 9311030346
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN WINS BY LANDSLIDE AS GOP REGAINS POWER

In the race for attorney general, Republican James Gilmore overwhelmed Democrat William Dolan.

Beyer's victory was narrower than expected. He will continue to preside over a 40-member state Senate that is almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.

With all of the vote counted, Beyer had 938,000 votes, or 54 percent, to 785,492 votes, or 46 percent, for Farris.

Beyer rolled up substantial margins in the heavily populated urban crescent stretching from Northern Virginia to Virginia Beach. Farris won in the rural areas outside the crescent.

The Beyer-Farris race drew national media attention because it was largely viewed as a political test of strength of the religious right.

Farris, an evangelical Christian who entered public life in 1980 as president of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in Washington state, had the financial and personal support of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who pumped $10,000 into his campaign.

A Northern Virginia lawyer and home-school advocate, Farris benefited from a network of home schoolers, many of whom were first-time political activists. They turned out in large numbers to deliver him the Republican nomination in June. Several thousand also sent small contributions - $100 or less - to his campaign, giving him a war chest of more than $1 million to battle Beyer.

Beyer, a Northern Virginia car dealership owner, raised $1.6 million for the campaign. He spent most of his money on television ads criticizing Farris' links to Robertson, Falwell and the religious right.

Farris was also viewed as hostile to public education, something he said was a misinterpretation of his opposition to huge central bureaucracies that run many schools. "We'll have better public schools if we have true economic choice in education," he said.

Political analysts said the negative ads worked for Beyer, as Farris' popularity in the polls dropped.

Farris accused Beyer of religious bigotry.

Farris' efforts may have been hampered by two events early in the campaign. In late September, U.S. Sen. John Warner, Virginia's only statewide Republican officeholder, was lukewarm about the GOP ticket. Warner hemmed and hawed in response to a television reporter's question about whether he would vote for Farris.

"Come see me the day before the election," Warner finally said.

Then, in early October, a group of Republicans held a Capitol news conference endorsing Beyer.

They said Beyer had more in common with mainstream Republicans than did Farris.

The office of lieutenant governor is part-time. The chief responsibility is presiding over the Virginia Senate during General Assembly sessions. The lieutenant governor votes only to break ties.

But winning the job often is considered a steppingstone to becoming governor.

The last time a Republican won the office was 20 years ago, when the late John Dalton was elected. The job pays $29,550 a year.

Few voters focused early on the attorney general's race, which turned into a referendum on crime.

Gilmore, Henrico County's commonwealth's attorney, easily beat Dolan, largely running on his record as a prosecutor and proposals to build 12 prisons and to abolish parole.

With 100 percent of the vote in, Gilmore had 952,257 votes, or 56 percent. Dolan had 743,807 votes, or 44 percent.

Gilmore ran up huge margins in the Richmond area, carrying it by more than 55,000 votes. Dolan, in contrast, led by only about 12,000 votes in Northern Virginia, his base.

Dolan, a trial lawyer and former president of the Virginia State Bar, sought unsuccessfully to tell voters that the majority of the attorney general's time is spent writing legal opinions, protecting consumers and representing more than 200 state agencies, not on locking up criminals.

Gilmore also kept clubbing Dolan about the legal fees he charged the state for prosecuting a former Norfolk judge on a forgery charge.

Dolan was appointed by Norfolk Circuit Court judges to prosecute former District Judge Joseph Campbell, who was accused of ordering a clerk to change court records to hide from the public the arrest of then-Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Sciortino.

The last Republican to win the attorney general's office was Marshall Coleman in 1977.

Keywords:
ELECTION