- Title
- Newspaper Clippings General Elections
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- Document Title
- Wilder's Rivals for Senate
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- Date
- 1994
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-
- Creator
- ["Multiple creators"]
-
- Source
- L. Douglas Wilder Collection, L. Douglas Wilder Library, Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA
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Newspaper Clippings General Elections
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■ Wilder
Continued from B1
“When he ran for governor,
he took nearly a half-million dol¬
lars from PACs,” Rohrer said.
“He took a reported $1 million
from lobbyists and others for his
inaugural. ... Now he’s having
difficulty raising money, and he’s
trying to put the best possible
face on it.”
As of June 30, the last report¬
ing date, former Gov. Wilder had
raised just $66,400, less than half
of what the other independent
in the race had accumulated and
a tiny fraction of what North and
Robb had.
In 1991, when he briefly
sought the Democratic Party’s
nomination for president, Wilder
joined several other candidates
in refusing all
РАС
contributions.
“What basically changed was
we came to the conclusion that
РАС
money was having a bad
influence on this election, and
we decided not to enter the fray
with two candidates who were
obviously intending to get as
much
РАС
money as they could
get,” Conley said.
Wilder said there has been
“an unusually large number of
oil company PACs and energy-
producing PACs” contributing to
Robb. Among these he said were
Chevron Corp., Phillips
Petroleum Co. and Tenneco Inc.,
which owns Newport News
Shipbuilding. Tenneco also owns
a natural gas pipeline company
but is not an energy producer.
Spokeswoman Christine LeLau-
rin said the company has no par¬
ticular interest in gasoline taxes.
These PACs contributed to
Robb “because he supports a 50-
cent a gallon tax increase on
motor fuels,” Wilder said.
“That’s ludicrous,” Tom Bres-
nahan, a Chevron lobbyist in
Washington, said at the sugges¬
tion his company wants an
increase in gasoline taxes.
“As far as oil companies are
concerned, if you increase the
price of oil by 50 cents a gallon,
consumers would use less, and
oil companies would earn less.”
In May 1993, Robb offered an
amendment in the Senate that
would have imposed a 10-cents-a-
gallon increase in gasoline taxes
each year for five years instead
of a then-proposed so-called btu
tax, which would have increased
taxes on all fuels based on their
energy content as reckoned in
British thermal units.
Wilder singled out Robb for
criticism even though Marshall
Coleman, another independent
candidate trailing in fund-rais¬
ing, is also seeking
РАС
help
with a Washington fund-raiser
scheduled for Wednesday. “We
hope that maybe he would see
the light” and “follow our lead,”
Conley said.
As for North, “We may talk
about North’s fund-raising proce¬
dures at a later time,” Conley said.
Robb proves
his vote can
be bought,
Wilder says
By Barry Flynn , ,cyj
Daily Press I " v '
Doug Wilder attacked Sen.
Charles Robb Monday for
accepting contributions from
political action committees, or
PACs, and charged that Robb
has proved his “vote can be
bought.”
Wilder believes
РАС
money
has become a “corrosive influ¬
ence" in politics, spokesman
Dan Conley said. Wilder, an
independent candidate for
Robb’s seat, is running a dis¬
tant last in fund-raising among
the four candidates.
Robb campaign spokesman
Bert Rohrer responded that
Wilder had flip-flopped on
РАС
money and that “it’s going to
cost a lot of money to counter”
the $17 million Republican
candidate Oliver North hopes
to raise.
Please see Wilder/B2