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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 31, 1994                   TAG: 9408010059
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOUCHER STANDS BY HIS MEN; MAKES PITCH FOR CLINTON, ROBB

He welcomes it.

Boucher told Montgomery County Democrats at their annual picnic that no president since Lyndon Johnson has gotten as much accomplished in his first year as Clinton. Boucher, who came to the gathering after his third meeting of the day with constituents, cited passage of the Medical and Family Leave Act, the motor-voter law, the North American Free Trade Agreement and a deficit reduction act, among others.

Fast has said he hopes to tie Boucher to what Fast sees as Clinton's lack of popularity among voters. Boucher did not see it that way at all.

Boucher said the last two years of Clinton's term will be as crucial as the first in advancing a progressive agenda, and that Democrats cannot afford to lose control of the Senate if Clinton is to have the support he will need.

That is why it is important to re-elect Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., Boucher said. "To me, that is just as important a goal as my own re-election to Congress."

Another speaker who obviously felt that way was Lynda Robb, the senator's wife. She said voters must be made to realize that the two independent candidates, former Republican Marshall Coleman and former Democrat Doug Wilder, are not factors in the Senate race.

"This is a two-person race, and a non-vote for Chuck Robb is a vote for Oliver North, and that would have disastrous consequences for this country," she said. She characterized North as an element of the "intolerant right."

"It's an intolerance we can't have in Virginia," she said.

"I want Chuck Robb to be everybody's first choice but I also want you to know that, if you don't vote for him, you're voting for Oliver North," she said. "I want you to understand how serious this is for all of us."

Boucher said the turnout of 10,000 delegates to the state Republican convention showed the organizing power of the North-Fast element.

"The other side is working with religious fervor and we've seen what they can do," he said. "The task that we have is to make sure our Democratic votes are delivered as well."

He said it will take rigorous political organization in the massive congressional district, which extends from the western edge of Roanoke County to the western tip of Virginia, including all of the New River Valley.

Both speakers, along with Del. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Montgomery County Democratic Chairwoman Lindsay West, got on picnic benches to address some 120 people gathered in a county park shelter. A downpour forced the crowd to move tables toward the center of the shelter and climb onto them to avoid running water that rushed across the shelter floor for some time.

"Obviously, y'all are not fair-weather friends," Robb said.

She said it was the first time she had gotten onto a table at a political gathering since age 4, when she sang a song that urged listeners to vote for her father, Lyndon Johnson.

Keywords:
POLITICS