THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080350
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Not in most of our lifetimes has there been so theatrical a midterm congressional campaign as will culminate in today's election.
What a denouement awaits us tomorrow!
What have we done to deserve it?
Usually two or three races excite voters; now more than a dozen, including Virginia's mind-boggler, engage voters across the nation.
And the voters have the privilege of writing the last act as we go to the polls today.
Around the country, the state held in most incredulity is Virginia. Rare is the late night when the Old Dominion is not the butt of a joke by this or that talk-show host.
Front-runners in Virginia's three-way race are U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb and retired Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, both notable liars.
The third candidate, former GOP Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman, is running as an independent, recruited by U.S Sen. John Warner, a Republican who can't abide North.
Coleman's campaign has been handicapped by a fear among many voters that a vote for him will enhance the chance of whichever of the two front-runners they detest the more.
Robb and North are curiously dependent on each other for their places on the ballot. Either probably would have been defeated had the other's party had the wit to put up a worthier candidate.
They are inimical political Siamese twins yoked by weird circumstance. A more complex political equation could not be imagined.
This week Robb pulled to an 8-point advantage in one survey, but polls cannot measure the efforts of many of North's devout followers in working to deliver a heavy turnout today.
Nor can they gauge the outpouring today of black voters, many of whom already were disposed to back Robb. Robb prays their numbers heightened further when former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder endorsed Robb last month.
Democrat Wilder, who had been running as an independent, chose to throw his weight behind Robb after a conference with President Clinton. Wilder has been campaigning heartily for Robb ever since, and should Robb eke out a victory, he may owe it to his former nemesis.
Among other states with fascinating races, there is Texas.
Gov. Ann Richards, who in 1988 accused President George Bush of being born with a silver foot in his mouth, finds herself opposing his son George W. Bush Jr.
``He doesn't know the difference between sic'em and c'mere,'' Richards said of the son.
And the Bush offspring, in turn, has adopted an unsettling air of respect toward her.
H. Ross Perot added pepper to the pot. As an independent candidate Perot contributed to father Bush's defeat in 1992. The other day he popped up endorsing Richards as ``the greatest governor in Texas history.''
In Florida, Jeb Bush, another son, contends with Gov. Lawton Chiles, one of the last of the silver-haired-and-tongued Southern governors.
A contagion of raging distrust of government is nowhere more evident than in Washington state, where House Speaker Tom Foley is in a squeaker with Republican George Nethercutt.
Any state in its right mind would glory in claiming the head of the House, a source of clout. Many voters in Washington are not so inclined.
And in Tennessee, soft-spoken U.S. Sen. Jim Sasser is hard-pressed by Republican Bill Frist, a Nashville physician.
Sasser is in line to become Democratic leader in the Senate, where Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee already roosts. That Tennessee might cast aside a chance to compound its representation shows the depth of voter resentment toward government.
But in Chicago, that land of ultimate reality, the Sun-Times endorsed Rep. Dan Rostenkowski even though he has been indicted.
Its reasoning: Rosty can best help Chicago.
In California, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Portia of politics, is in a tight race with Republican Rep. Michael Huffington.
A major issue is what to do about illegal immigrants. Feinstein's odds improved when it was revealed that Huffington, a hard-liner against illegal aliens, had employed one as a nanny. He compounded the mistake by blaming it on his wife. Feinstein has had her own difficulties with that issue.
In New York, Gov. Mario Cuomo, the last great voice of liberalism, hard-pressed by state Rep. George Pataki, won the endorsement of New York City's Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.
In Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, aided by President Clinton, may have turned back a spirited challenge by Republican Mitt Romney.
In Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford, godfather to health care reform, began to decline in the polls along with the plan's popularity and seems fated to fall before Republican Rep. Rick Santorum.
Republican surges in contests across the continent may carry the GOP to a majority in one or both chambers. The whole country has been in brisk debate.
The interest in today's election rivals that in the 1952 presidential race when General Dwight D. Eisenhower, retiring from the Army, enlisted as the GOP candidate, and former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson came to the fore as the Democratic candidate.
With so much at stake, today's turnout bids to top that of any previous midterm election. It should.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB