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

DATE: MONDAY, November 15, 1993                   TAG: 9311150073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN FILLING RANKS FROM RIGHT

Eager to flex their growing political muscle, members of the state's religious right are working to ensure that their ranks are represented in the appointments of Gov.-elect George Allen.

Allen won the Republican nomination last spring largely because of the support of Christian activists, who emerged from the Nov. 2 election emboldened to exert themselves on several fronts.

Allen has filled some spots on his transition team with key figures from the religious right, including Anne B. Kincaid, the state's leading anti-abortion lobbyist, and Michael Thomas, former leader of a Virginia anti-abortion group.

Appointing conservatives "would certainly be in George's interest," said Morton Blackwell, a longtime conservative activist from Virginia and member of the Republican National Committee. "He's been pretty smart [in attracting conservatives], and we have every reason to expect that he'd stay smart."

"No one's going to be shut out" of the administration, Allen said last week. "I want people who are competent, and share my philosophy . . . I don't look at it based on, `Are you from this wing of the party or that wing?' "

Christian activists say that exerting influence over appointments to the Allen administration is just the beginning. Buoyed by the performance of evangelical Republican Mike Farris in the lieutenant governor's race, they are determined to play a role in next year's Senate election, mostly on behalf of retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North.

While Democrat Don Beyer won re-election in the lieutenant governor's race, Farris garnered about 46 percent of the vote. By campaign's end, he had raised more than $1 million to Beyer's $1.6 million.

Over the next two years, Christian activists also plan to weigh in heavily in local races, especially on school board elections now allowed under state law. They say they'll either run their own candidates or ensure that mainstream candidates bow to their issues.

And many religious conservatives already are looking ahead three years for a chance to settle a score with U.S. Sen. John Warner, who enraged many on the right by refusing to endorse Farris in the general election. Farris has hinted that he would like to unseat Warner in the 1996 GOP nominating contest.

"I think one has to look at them as a continuing force," said Robert Holsworth, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University.

by CNB