THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406060051
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE AND MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: RICHMOND
Central to the furor is former state Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman, who has suggested he will enter the Senate race as an independent to try and thwart North.
{REST} At a morning ``unity breakfast,'' Allen prompted a standing ovation by declaring that ``Marshall Coleman should resist the temptation to get into this race.''
Coleman, who was the GOP nominee in the 1981 and 1989 gubernatorial races, has gathered enough signatures to get his name on the November ballot as an independent candidate. He is expected to announce his intentions later this week.
A few hours after Allen's admonishment, Robert Dole, the Senate minority leader from Kansas, said on a national television program that he will meet with Coleman on Wednesday or Thursday.
North's nomination ``makes it very difficult for some in the Republican Party,'' Dole said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''
Dole did not endorse Coleman, and he said that Coleman had requested the meeting. ``I don't know what he has to say, but I will meet with him,'' Dole said. He added that ``it's going to take a while'' before he decides whether to support North.
Another Senate Republican appearing on the same program - John McCain of Arizona - also shook his head over North's nomination. ``From a clear political standpoint,'' he said, ``our chances of winning that seat are dramatically diminished.''
McCain added that he respects the wishes of the Virginia Republican Party and intends to support the nominee.
North shrugged off both men's comments.
``Do I look bothered?'' North said at a campaign rally in Richmond. ``Those candidates are not running in Virginia. I'm running for the people of Virginia.''
``This is not about what they want,'' added State Republican Chairman Patrick M. McSweeney. ``It's about what we want.''
North's opponent for the nomination, former federal budget director James C. Miller III, also called for healing Sunday. After spending weeks blasting North as unfit for the Senate because of his three overturned felony convictions stemming from the Iran-Contra scandal, Miller now said the former Marine is ``battle-hardened and ready to go.''
Responding to questions from the media, Miller was less specific about what he'll do in the North campaign. He'll participate ``as appropriate . . . if I can do something constructive,'' he said.
North, who after the Richmond rally embarked on a highway tour of western parts of the state, tried to grab the initiative in the campaign by calling for a series of debates.
He challenged ``all comers'' to four ``real, live Lincoln-Douglas debates'' after the June 14 Democratic primary. In the primary election, Democratic state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Rocky Mount, Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute and Lyndon LaRouche follower Nancy Spannaus are challenging incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb.
Former Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is circulating petitions and has hired a staff to run as an independent in the fall, meaning the North-proffered debates could be four-way affairs: North, Coleman, Wilder and the Democratic nominee.
North called for the debates to feature no questions from the media and to begin as soon after the primary as possible.
{KEYWORDS} REPUBLICAN CONVENTION U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB