
DATE: Sunday, May 25, 1997                  TAG: 9705250049

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  132 lines

ATTORNEY GENERAL CANDIDATES TOUT GET-EVEN-TOUGHER STANCE ON CRIME

Republican attorney general candidate Ken Stolle once suggested that Virginia augment its ``throw-away-the-key'' policy toward drug users and offer some addiction counseling.

He isn't the only candidate in the June 10 primary who's had a moment of weakness.

Jerry Kilgore was quoted two winters ago saying that maybe, just maybe, Virginia has been about as hard on criminals as it can be.

Today, he denies ever speaking the words.

``Our tough-on-crime policies have worked in Virginia,'' Kilgore said this week. ``We're not going to back down now.''

Without exception, the four Republicans running for attorney general want to take one of the nation's most hard-nosed criminal justice systems and make it even tougher on lawbreakers.

Two of them want mandatory jail sentences for crimes such as child abuse or domestic violence - even misdemeanors. Another, not content with the abolition of parole, wants to move toward abolishing bail for people accused of violent crimes.

Two candidates advocate liberal expulsion policies in public schools. They want to pull children who are violent or use drugs out of classrooms and place them in reform schools, where they won't interfere with other children's educations.

Kilgore wants to beef up Virginia's drug laws until government employees get random drug screenings and every user - even the first-time teen-ager with a marijuana joint - is guaranteed jail time, or at least community labor.

Some candidates have more ideas than others. Kilgore releases new ideas every week, while Mark Earley touts himself mostly as a practitioner of law, not an officer of it.

But forgetting, for a moment, that the Virginia attorney general plays virtually no official role in fighting crime or passing laws, the Republicans have detailed long lists of crimes they want to fight and laws they want to pass.

Not all are new ideas; not all are about crime. But on several points, the candidates are advocating policies that go farther still in emphasizing punishment as a deterrent.

For instance, state lawmakers are studying a version of ``Megan's Law,'' which requires police to notify citizens when a convicted child abuser moves into their neighborhood.

Even before that study is complete, candidate Gil Davis wants the law applied to every felon in Virginia.

Stolle, frustrated that police have been unsuccessful uncovering money laundering activity by drug rings, wants to give police access to bank records. ``Some people will object to the release of that kind of information,'' Stolle said. ``But we have to do something.''

Earley and Davis both want to crack down on violence in school. They advocate more of a reform school-like policy of kicking bad kids out of class.

``When I send my daughters to school, I don't worry about the kind of instruction they get as much as I worry about their safety,'' Earley said. ``You just cannot have the violent and disruptive situation in the classroom that so many teachers are dealing with.''

Like his opponents, Earley acknowledges that an attorney general has little statutory authority to set policy or to write state law.

Rather, he and the rest are exploiting what has evolved into the job's most powerful policy-making role: That of statewide spokesman, who commands the public's ear and can hold sway over the legislature.

``I think some of the candidates sell the public short - they think people don't understand what an attorney general does,'' Earley said. ``But you can expect to influence the direction the state takes on a lot of issues.''

With election day closing, the four candidates have each settled on an individual theme for their candidacy:

Stolle, a former police officer, wants to attack drug use.

Kilgore pushes his ``Honest Government Bill of Rights,'' a list of campaign finance and lobbying reforms designed to take the private-sector profit out of public service.

Davis pitches himself as the best lawyer for the job - the candidate with the longest resume and the most courtroom experience.

Earley promises fairness and integrity above all else, with a renewed commitment to fundamental values like patriotism and equal rights.

But beneath those themes are the details, many of them specific pledges that an attorney general would need the governor or General Assembly to accomplish.

Kilgore wants to privatize the rest areas on interstate highways, dangling concession rights before any company willing to provide 24-hour security service. Only the legislature could make it happen.

Davis has made equal rights an issue in his campaign - at the expense of affirmative action, if that means granting someone special privileges, he said. California needed a constitutional amendment to create the kind of policy Davis talks about. He says he'd support one in Virginia, if that's what it takes. But the voters would have to pass it.

Earley wants to ban late-term ``partial birth'' abortions, something Congress is trying to do right now. Only the legislature can pass such a law.

And Stolle wants to tighten the state's grip on drug users, also the legislature's problem.

Like the rest, he'd do it through the political or legislative arm of the attorney general's office, a team of lawyers that mostly lobbies lawmakers and helps draft legislation.

``The truth is, that's a large part of what the attorney general's job has become,'' said Stolle. ``People expect it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Color photos

CANDIDATES' CRIME-FIGHTING PROPOSALS

GIL DAVIS

* Mandatory jail for first offense of sexual child abuse.

* Mandatory jail time for domestic violence.

* ``Zero tolerance'' for crimes committed in school, removal of

disruptive students from classrooms.

* ``You spray, parents pay'' legislation for graffiti.

* ``Megan's law'' -type statute for all paroled felons, notifying

community groups when felons move into their neighborhoods.

MARK EARLEY