DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997              TAG: 9704190323

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   70 lines

JOHN WARNER'S INQUIRY INTO LA. ELECTION CALLED ``PAYING DUES'' TO GOP A TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS THE VIRGINIAN'S AIM IS TO HEAD THE PANEL ON ARMED SERVICES.

His ambition to head a powerful committee overseeing the nation's military is behind Virginia Sen. John W. Warner's zeal to fully investigate charges that Democrats stole a Louisiana election last fall, a senior Democrat said Friday.

Warner ``is willing to pay whatever dues (are) necessary'' to secure the backing of other Republicans and gain the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., the Senate minority leader, told reporters.

A top aide to Warner scoffed at the charge, saying that her boss supports the current Armed Services chairman, J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Warner ``has no information or reason to believe'' Thurmond might vacate that job, said Susan Magill, Warner's staff chief.

Thurmond, 94, is the Senate's oldest member and is slated to become the longest-serving senator ever in a few weeks. He has been hospitalized briefly several times in recent months, but an aide said Friday that he is fine and intends to remain as committee chairman.

As the committee's second-ranking GOP member, Warner would be in line to become chairman if Thurmond stepped aside. Warner has made military matters his primary focus through more than 18 years in the Senate.

Warner now heads the Senate Rules Committee, a usually low-profile panel that for several months has been looking into alleged irregularities in the election last November of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat.

On Thursday, Warner sought and got the committee's approval for a more formal and aggressive investigation. Richard Cullen, a Republican activist who will become Virginia's attorney general when James S. Gilmore vacates that job in June, will head a team of lawyers from the firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe in conducting the inquiry.

By a 9-7 party line vote, the committee also agreed to let Warner alone determine the scope of the investigation.

Democrats contend the probe is a ``fishing expedition'' and say the committee should conduct a more limited investigation. That course was recommended by two outside lawyers - one Republican and one Democrat - the committee hired for an initial review of the allegations.

Landrieu defeated Republican Woody Jenkins by 5,788 votes out of about 1.8 million cast. But Jenkins contends there are enough suspect ballots to overturn that result and has made allegations of vote buying, multiple voting and fraudulent voter registration.

Democrats meanwhile, contend that Jenkins can't prove his charges. Daschle said Friday they want the committee to at least look into the possibility that some of his complaints are fabricated.

``I think everyone in this town knows what's going on here,'' Daschle said Friday. ``John Warner wants to be the next chairman of the Armed Services Committee. . . . He's being a good soldier.

``This is contrary to the demeanor and to the character and to the approach John Warner has always used in the past. He has always been fair. He has been fair-minded, willing to work with Democrats. But it is clear that if this is what it takes to become Armed Services chairman, he'll do what it takes. And I think that's unfortunate.''

Two years ago, Warner was among several GOP senators linked to a reported effort to force Thurmond out as Armed Services chairman. The apparent plot collapsed when Thurmond secured the backing of then-Majority Leader Bob Dole.

But rumors of efforts to oust the sometimes-frail Thurmond have cropped up repeatedly since the incident, and some committee watchers believe Warner secured effective control of the panel in 1996 when one of his longtime aides, Romie L. ``Les'' Brownlee, became the committee's staff director.

``The demise of my friendship with (Thurmond) was greatly exaggerated,'' Warner insisted in an interview last fall. ILLUSTRATION: Warner

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