North Launches Campaign for Senate Seat : Politics: Iran-Contra figure tells Virginia supporters that he wants ‘to take back government from the insiders.’ He has $1-million war chest.

Oliver L. North, the retired Marine officer who became a national figure during the Iran-Contra scandal, launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Thursday with public appearances across Virginia.

Speaking to supporters at hotel rallies in four cities, the man who admitted lying to members of Congress seven years ago said he wants to join their ranks “to take back government from the insiders and wheeler-dealers and put it back where it belongs--in your hands.”

If North wins the Republican nomination at the party’s state convention in June, the former lieutenant colonel who ran a secret White House resupply mission for Nicaragua’s Contras likely will face another former Marine--incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb--next November.

In remarks here in Virginia’s heartland that mirrored earlier speeches in Norfolk, Richmond and later in Herndon, North said: “I believe that we, those of us gathered in this room, represent the real hopes and the real aspirations and dreams and values of the working men and women. I believe that if we have the courage and determination to do right by them, we can make a change in Washington.”

In each hotel ballroom, his supporters cheered and waved blue-and-white signs that said: “North for U.S. Senate.”

Although Thursday marked North’s first official campaigning, the former National Security Council aide in the Ronald Reagan White House has been giving political speeches around the state for the last 18 months.

He has already raised a campaign war chest in excess of $1 million.

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Convicted in 1989 of three felonies in connection with the scandal--including aiding and abetting the obstruction of Congress--North acknowledged that he hid the truth from congressional investigators who first questioned him in 1986 about reports that he was secretly assisting the Nicaraguan rebel forces.

At the time, U.S. military aid for the Contras was prohibited by Congress.

North’s conviction was overturned in 1991 by a federal appellate court on grounds that his testimony to Congress, which came after a grant of immunity, had been used against him indirectly.

Earlier this month, the final report by Lawrence E. Walsh, the independent counsel appointed to investigate the scandal, agreed with North that higher officials of the Reagan Administration had directed the unlawful activities.

But Walsh insisted that North still had lied during early congressional inquiries.

Some political analysts have said they believe that North’s record in the Iran-Contra scandal leaves him open to public criticism. If so, the immediate beneficiary would be former Reagan Budget Director James C. Miller III, who kicked off his own campaign for the Republican nomination last month.

Larry J. Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, noted that “North has many enemies,” which he said often occurs with people who engender strong emotion in others.

“This is only the beginning of a very long campaign,” Sabato said.