
DATE: Wednesday, June 11, 1997              TAG: 9706110448

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: DECISION '97 

SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  129 lines

EARLY WINS GOP NOMINATION FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE VOTE WAS KEY FACTOR

State Sen. Mark L. Earley of Chesapeake bested three opponents in the Republican primary for attorney general on Tuesday, backed by a network of Christian conservative voters who cast ballots on a day when few others did.

Less than 5 percent of the state's 3.4 million registered voters participated in the primary to fill out the Republican ticket headed by gubernatorial candidate James S. Gilmore III and the lieutenant governor hopeful, John H. Hager.

Earley, a former missionary who spearheaded a successful effort this year to require that parents be notified before abortions may be performed on most teen-agers, will face Democrat William G. Dolan of Fairfax in the Nov. 4 general election.

Earley won with only 60,235 votes, or 36 percent of the tally. He was trailed by Jerry W. Kilgore, a former secretary of public safety, 41,455, 24 percent; state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach, 35,062, 21 percent; and Gilbert K. Davis, a Northern Virginia lawyer, 31,704, 19 percent.

``It was really a team effort, a family effort,'' Earley told about 150 cheering supporters gathered at the Greenbrier Country Club.

Surrounded by his wife and six children, the 42-year-old lawmaker said he was looking forward to putting the sometimes fractious primary behind him and taking on Dolan. ``We had a tough race . . . but I know we are going to have a unified party,'' he said.

Earley added: ``Our goal was to stay focused on the issues. . . . I'm glad we had such an effective grassroots campaign.''

Many who attended the celebration identified themselves as church activists. ``I teach Sunday school to 35 women,'' said Eloise Bryant, a retired civil service worker from Chesapeake. ``I told them `You can vote wrong if you want to, but I'm going to vote for Mark Earley. He's a true Christian candidate.' ''

Earley's three Republican opponents all pledged their support in the general election.

With no competition for the top two spots on the Republican ticket, the primary for attorney general sparked little attention and public interest. Facing certain low voter turnout, the four candidates each approached the race differently.

Earley eschewed television advertising and relied on his close association with Christian conservatives to build a strong grassroots network. Many evangelicals felt indebted to Earley for his longtime efforts in seeking a law requiring physicians to notify parents before performing abortions on minors, which finally succeeded earlier this year.

Earley, who promised to promote a pro-family agenda, received a $25,000 contribution this spring from religious broadcaster M.G. ``Pat'' Robertson. Other influential evangelical leaders who endorsed his candidacy included Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council in Washington; and Walter Barbee, president of the Family Foundation based in Richmond.

Setting up the fall race, Democrat Dolan earlier this week characterized Earley as a pawn of the Christian Coalition. But Earley's complex legislative record may defy easy labeling. He branched out from his social conservative roots to take lead roles in promoting welfare reform and moderate positions on a number of labor issues.

``It's going to be a tough sell to swing voters if Dolan's going to argue that Pat Robertson owns Earley,'' said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist.

The influential Right to Work Committee criticized Earley during the final week of the campaign for introducing a series of bills in 1991 that would have weakened a state law barring compulsory union membership. Earley argued that he misunderstood the bills and has since strongly supported the right-to-work law.

Davis, 54, had almost no grassroots organization and relied on his personal fortune to quickly introduce himself to voters. He pumped at least $1.2 million of his own money into the campaign, buying television commercials across the state to bill himself as tough on crime.

But all of his money couldn't buy the favorable publicity he received from representing Paula Jones in a sexual harassment suit against President Clinton. Davis made national headlines late in the campaign when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the suit could proceed while Clinton is in the White House.

Davis, arguing he was the most experienced attorney in the Republican field, needed all the lift he could get. His campaign was almost decimated last winter when another woman client released an embarrassing videotape of Davis hoisting a cocktail and discussing her desire to pose for Playboy magazine. Although Davis insisted that the conversation was in jest, Stolle aired the footage in the most memorable television ad of the campaign.

Stolle was widely criticized in Republican circles for running the negative commercial. It was the final fallout for a candidate who started as the frontrunner and went on a steady slide.

A former Virginia Beach policeman who read for the law to pass the Virginia Bar exam, Stolle billed himself as the ``top cop.'' He cited his patronage of Gov. George F. Allen's popular bill in 1994 to abolish parole as an important credential. Stolle built an impressive list of endorsements from GOP elected officials across the state and raised almost $1 million.

Stolle battled news reports that he had overstated some of his educational and legal credentials. His aggressive nature led all three of his opponents, plus editorial writers, to label him as a mudslinger.

Kilgore, 35, raised only $256,000 for his campaign and was unable to get his name known outside of his native southwestern Virginia.

A former U.S. attorney and state secretary of public safety, Kilgore tried to distinguish himself as a candidate with fresh ideas. He urged a wide range of initiatives, from ethics reform to privatizing rest stops on Virginia interstates. MEMO: Staff writers Matthew Dolan, Robert Little and Bill Reed

contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

GARY C. KNAPP

State Sen. Mark Earley heads to the podium at the Greenbrier Country

Club in Chesapeake Tuesday night after winning the Republican Party

primary race to run for attorney general. At Earley's side are his

son, Justin, 12, left, and Barbara Haynes, a supporter from Virginia

Beach.

THE VOTE

Mark L. Earley 36 percent

Jerry W. Kilgore 24 percent

Kenneth W. Stolle 21 percent

Gilbert K. Davis 19 percent