THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190438
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Ahhhh, the smell of autumn in Charlottesville - the crisp air; the bustling downtown restaurants; the two guys with buzzcuts, devil sticks and a strangely smoking can who approached U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb on Tuesday.
``I was wondering,'' one of them said to the senator as a group of television cameras closed in, ``how you feel on the legalization of marijuana?''
``Oh, uh, goodness,'' exclaimed Robb, as he got a deep whiff of the sweet smoke curling up in front of him. ``Is that what I'm smelling right now? Because this is a very awkward moment right now, for you, if it is.''
Not to mention for the senator, who has always denied seeing or even being able to recognize drugs during his notorious Virginia Beach party days as governor. Now he had six TV cameras - including one each from ABC News and Nightline - and about two dozen reporters on hand to record this campaign moment.
``No, no, it's just incense,'' said 18-year-old Matthew Sanders. He was right: a burning stick of incense was poking out of the empty root beer can in his hand.
Sanders' friend, 19-year-old Beau Dorsey, had a pair of devil sticks, colored wands he said he learned to spin and balance while visiting Jamaica.
Robb ignored the props and plowed back into campaignspeak, explaining to the pair that ``I'm not for the legalization of any drugs. I understand the arguments, but I think we have to work on education and rehabilitation.''
``There are more accidents with alcohol than with marijuana,'' Dorsey countered.
``I'm aware of that,'' Robb said. ``I think the education factor is important. I think more and more people are realizing that drinking alcohol can cause accidents.''
THE ROCKBRIDGE ADVOCATE has published the most unscientific - and perhaps most enlightening - poll of the Senate campaign.
The weekly newspaper, which calls itself as ``independent as a hog on ice,'' got 400 people in Lexington and Rockbridge County to answer questions that ranged from ``Is your hair color natural'' to ``Do you believe men really walked on the moon?''
(Most people reported no dyes; while a tiny fringe minority thought the Apollo missions were a hoax.)
Two of the more telling findings:
Nearly one in every three Robb supporters favored women at Virginia Military Institute and said they had once protested a war. Only 8 percent of J. Marshall Coleman's supporters and 2 percent of North's answered ``yes'' to the VMI and protest questions.
North supporters were more likely to rent pornographic movies and attend church regularly. Some 11 percent of North's supporters indicated they answered ``yes'' to the porn and church questions, compared to 9 percent of Coleman's supporters and nearly 8 percent of Robb's supporters.
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA runs a computerized political stock market, where political junkies from around the world can plug in via the Internet to buy and sell ``shares'' in various political candidates, based on how much of the vote each is expected to get in November. Here's how the trading went this past week on Virginia's Senate race:
NORTH: down 2.5 percent, to 39.7 percent.
ROBB: unchanged, at 41.8 percent.
COLEMAN: up 3.2 percent, to 14.5 percent. MEMO: Staff writers Greg Schneider, David M. Poole and Dwayne Yancey
contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB