THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040562
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
``At it again!'' said tall, smiling J. Marshall Coleman greeting an early arrival at a news conference Wednesday in Norfolk.
``It'' began in 1972 when he served the first of two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, followed by four years in the Virginia Senate and another four years as Virginia's attorney general.
He lost hard-fought races for governor to Charles S. Robb in 1981 and to L. Douglas Wilder in 1989. Now he is in a four-way race with them and Oliver North for Robb's seat in the U.S. Senate.
In the Omni Hotel amphitheater, Coleman seemed both focused and serene. His son Bill, a football player at Georgetown University, had driven him on a three-day swing through Southside Virginia.
His son Sean, a Princeton graduate headed for the Harvard University Business School, is in Tysons Corner managing his father's schedule. To be with kin at the end of a day's campaigning ``is like being at home,'' Coleman said.
That Democrat Robb and Republican North will be spending enough to ``match the gross domestic product of Belgium'' doesn't seem to trouble Coleman.
Robb must cope with charges of marital indiscretions and North with his role in Iran-Contra.
Coleman figures he needn't spend lavishly to introduce himself. Nearly a million Virginians voted for him in the race that he lost to Wilder by two-tenths of a point.
``I will have to have enough money to do some advertising at the end.'' He is buoyed that ``everywhere I go people come up to me and say, `Thank you for running.'
``In the Fourth of July parade in Page County, North had close air support and lots of tanks and other vehicles, but we outwalked him,'' Coleman said. The reporter laughed and Coleman revised his account: ``North had several cars in the parade, all of them from California.''
That was an allusion to North receiving more donations from California than Virginia. (No wonder when people come up to thank Coleman, they linger to talk.)
The race is murky, but in the fall, he said, when people focus on concerns about Robb and North, ``I can be there as an alternative for Republicans, independents, and disenchanted Democrats.''
As the news conference began, a fellow started clipping a nearby hedge. The press milled about, cattle under thunder. One went to silence the mower.
Congress, Coleman said, should reform health care by authorizing people to take insurance with them when they leave jobs, by modifying exclusions to pre-existing conditions and through tort reforms to hold down the legal costs of medicine.
``In trying to balance the budget on the backs of the military,'' he said, ``we are making a huge mistake. Our first obligation is to protect this country's security.
``We are spending less of our gross domestic product today on defense than we were in 1940.''
How did it feel to run against two former governors who had defeated him? ``You know, Nov. 8 could make my day!'' he said.
The press dispersed. Walking to the mower, Coleman called, ``You can start up on the hedges. We appreciate it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON
J. Marshall Coleman told reporters how he'd modify health care at a
press conference in Norfolk Wednesday.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE
by CNB