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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994                   TAG: 9405240100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

WITH STAFF IN PLACE, WILDER LOOKING MORE LIKE A SENATE CANDIDATE

"This is beginning to resemble politics we are more accustomed to seeing in a country like Italy than in a state like Virginia,'' said Robert Holsworth, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist.

The state's traditional two-party lineup has been fractured by dissatisfaction with the leading candidates, incumbent Democrat Charles Robb and Republican Oliver North.

On Monday, alternative candidates from both parties drew closer to defection.

Wilder, a Democrat who dropped out of the race earlier this year, said he has begun raising money for campaigning.

"I have never been this far in my contemplation of a Senate race,'' Wilder said in a telephone interview.

The leader of a petition drive for former Republican state Attorney General Marshall Coleman said he may have enough signatures to put Coleman on the November ballot.

Dan Clemente said that Coleman has not indicated whether he would run. But when asked if he would be willing to bet that the fall campaign would be a four-way affair, Clemente said "Yep.''

Analysts say a four-way race appears more and more likely. But much could happen before the June 14 deadline for independent candidates to enter the race.

The Republican Party will meet June 3-4 in Richmond to decide a nomination battle between Jim Miller, a budget director under President Ronald Reagan, and North, who gained national notoriety for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s.

North is considered the favorite, but his potential nomination alarms some moderate Republicans, including U.S. Sen. John Warner. The fear that North's past, which includes criminal convictions for lying to Congress and accepting an illegal gift from a government contractor, is a recipe for defeat in November. The convictions later were overturned on a technicality.

Clemente said the response to a potential Coleman candidacy has been encouraging.

The Democrats will choose their nominee in a June 14 primary election from a field that includes state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount; Sylvia Clute, a Richmond lawyer; Nancy Spannaus, a follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, and Robb.

Robb began a television ad campaign Monday that touts his record as governor of Virginia from 1982-86 and as senator since 1989.

Goode and Clute, however, warn that Democrats should look to them because Robb will face withering assaults in the fall about his off-hours social life at Virginia Beach during his term as governor.

Wilder said his Senate campaign staff would be headed by Glenn Davidson, who served as Wilder's spokesman and chief of staff during his term as governor from 1990-94.

Keywords:
POLITICS