THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995                TAG: 9508280058
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: STANARDSVILLE                      LENGTH: Short :   48 lines

AND IN ANOTHER RACE: "TODAY" SHOW CO-HOST COURIC'S SISTER.

The dusty street outside the Court Square luncheonette isn't a likely spot to meet a famous name. So the gray-haired woman gripping Emily Couric's hand seemed to relish the moment.

``You're Katie's sister, right hon?'' she trilled. ``I watch your sister on TV every morning. You look a whole lot alike.''

Emily Couric managed to press a piece of campaign literature into the woman's hand and asked for her vote in November, when Couric hopes to win a seat in the Virginia Senate.

``Well, you're both good people,'' the woman said happily. ``And you look a whole lot alike.''

``We have the same parents,'' Emily Couric deadpanned, then flashed the immense smile familiar to millions who watch her sister co-host NBC's ``Today'' show each weekday morning.

Couric, 48, is making her first run for state Senate, representing the Charlottesville area where she has lived for about 15 years and was a school board chairman. Her Republican opponent, Sen. Edgar Robb, has served one term and is a supporter of Gov. George F. Allen's conservative legislative agenda.

``I think to the extent that Katie is a nice person and people associate you with your family, they assume that I'm nice, too. But I don't assume for a minute I'll be elected on that basis,'' Couric said.

Katie Couric said that her older sister's success as a writer and community activist predate her own television fame.

``I think for some people it won't be the first time they've heard the name, so maybe she won't have to spell it quite as often,'' Katie Couric said. ``I am always humbled, however, by the large number of people who maybe don't watch morning TV.''

Emily Couric, 10 years older than her sister, has published several books on the legal profession.

Growing up in the Washington suburb of Arlington as the children of a political writer, the Couric sisters got a heavy dose of politics, Katie Couric said.

KEYWORDS: HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE VIRGINIA by CNB