Dole Refuses to Endorse North’s Bid for Senate

One day after Oliver L. North won Virginia’s GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole rained on North’s victory celebration by refusing to endorse his fellow Republican and reaching out to potential North opponent J. Marshall Coleman.

Dole, of Kansas, said in a nationally televised interview Sunday that “it’s going to take a while” before he decides whether to support North, and that North’s victory “makes it very difficult for some in the Republican Party” to stay loyal.

He also said he plans to meet this week with Coleman, a former state attorney general who appears likely to bolt the Republican Party and run for the Senate as an independent. Although Dole said “I don’t know what (Coleman) has to say,” some political analysts immediately interpreted the meeting as a highly public slap at North.

North received more unwelcome news from another Republican senator, John McCain of Arizona, and from the man he beat Saturday, former federal budget director James C. Miller III. Both offered North tepid support, but McCain, appearing with Dole on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” said he believes North is a weak candidate. Miller, in remarks to reporters after a GOP breakfast here Sunday morning, said he has no plans to campaign for North.

In a news conference Sunday, North minimized the statements by Dole and McCain, noting that they came from two lawmakers “neither of whom are running in Virginia.”

“I’m running for the families of Virginia,” he said. “I’m not running anywhere else but Virginia.”

North had hoped to start his general election drive on an emotional high note Sunday, attending a “unity breakfast” with Virginia Republicans and beginning a four-day bus tour through rural Virginia. He vowed to press ahead, even though his hoped-for political honeymoon lasted less than 18 hours.

“The only thing that’s going to slow this parade down,” North said, “is a flat tire between here and Danville.”

The criticism of North by senior members of his own party “is simply remarkable,” said Robert Holsworth, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University. “North’s candidacy is already becoming a national issue. . . . You have an extraordinarily divided Republican Party in Virginia at the moment. (North) is perhaps the most polarizing figure on the political scene.”

North and Coleman are only two contenders in what could become an unprecedented four-man field in this year’s Virginia Senate race. Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb faces three underdog challengers in a party primary election June 14. If Robb wins, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder appears likely to break away from the Democrats and mount his own campaign as an independent.

President Clinton said Sunday he believes Robb will be reelected.

“Col. North represents a clear choice for the people of Virginia and a clear triumph for the radical right,” Clinton said in an interview with ABC News aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington. “And my guess is that the people of Virginia, once they see what their stark choices are, will choose Sen. Robb.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.