From: clarinews@clarinet.com (United Press International)
Newsgroups: clari.news.election,clari.news.politics,clari.news.gov.usa,biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.top
Followup-to: biz.clarinet.sample
Subject: Virginia Democrats hold presidential caucuses; Clinton slips
Keywords: election, politics, political parties, usa federal, government
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 14:56:35 PDT
ACategory: washington
Slugword: politics
Priority: major
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 767; Id: z5150; Sel: xxnpe; Adate: 4-11-6ped; Ver: sked
Codes: ynperxx., ynpprxx., yngwrxx.

	Virginia began its Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday, while
Bill Clinton slipped in a new poll pitting him against President Bush
and Jerry Brown affirmed he will stay in the race for the White House
through his party's national convention.
	Potential third-party candidate H. Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire,
emerged clean but miffed from a grilling by an assemblage of journalists
in Washington, while Bush aired another radio address in what is
becoming an election-year routine on Saturday mornings.
	Now that the pivotal New York primaries are out of the way, the
presidential race is running slow. The country's next primary is not
until April 28 in Pennsylvania.
	Virginia Democrats began local caucuses during the weekend. Delegates
and alternates to conventions in congressional districts will be elected
pledged to certain presidential candidates or uncommitted based on the
turnout.
	Democratic Party spokesman Harry Carver said some 3,500 delegates
will be elected Saturday and Monday to go to the May district
conventions and the June 5-6 state Democratic convention in Roanoke. At
the district and state conventions, 80 delegates will be elected to be
sent to the Democratic National Convention in New York City in July.
	Clinton did not tour Virginia to court party faithful Friday because
doctors told him to rest his vocal cords, saying he risked permanent
damage if he did not refrain from speaking and rest a spell.
	Brown spoke to a group of ministers Friday and rejected as ``bizarre''
and unsubstantiated allegations that he had staged wild parties at his
Los Angeles home while California governor.
	He was back in Los Angeles Saturday for the California Democratic
Party Convention. Speaking to a conclave of state Democrats, Brown said
he intends to stay in the race for the party nomination through its
national convention.
	That despite quiet urging from party leaders that he quit now and
support front-runner Clinton.
	``I have no idea if Bill Clinton will be the nominee. The process is
still open,'' Brown said.
	A new poll for Time magazine and Cable News Network showed Clinton
was trailing Bush 43 percent to 33 percent, indicating an erosion in
support of the Arkansas governor. A similar survey in mid-March had the
governor and the president running neck and neck at 43 percent.
	The latest poll asked whether Clinton, Bush, Brown, and Perot are
honest and trsutworthy enough to be president.
	For Clinton 39 percent said yes and 53 percent said no, while Bush
received 59 percent to 37 percent, Brown got 36 percent to 54 percent
and Perot got 36 percent to 24 percent, with the rest saying they were
unsure.
	The poll of 937 registered voters by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman was
conducted April 9. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2
percent.
	Bush hasn't had to put up much of a fight in the race for the
Republican nomination, but conservative challenger Patrick Buchanan is
keeping up his long-shot attempt to unseat the president.
	In his five-minute radio address taped Friday for Saturday morning,
Bush lauded Wisconsin's new welfare reform program, which permits the
state to reduce payments to unwed mothers.
	Bush had granted Wisconsin a waiver from federal welfare regulations
so it could implement its so-called ``bridefare'' program. The
initiative would cap benefits for single mothers with more than one
child, but increase payments if she married.
	``We want a welfare system that breaks the cycle of dependency ...
before poverty becomes a family legacy,'' he said.
	New York Sen. Patrick Moynihan, delivering the Democratic response to
Bush, suggested the chief executive was playing politics with a serious
issue.
	``Don't let politics drive this thing. You will drive us into a swamp
of racial division and bitterness,'' he said.
	Moynihan implored Bush to drop the subject of welfare reform, at
least until after the November election. ``God help America if this
doesn't stop,'' the senator said.
	Perot appeared Friday before the American Society of Newspapers
Editors, and answered ``No'' to questions whether he ever cheated on his
wife or taxes and whether he used drugs or associated with people who
did.
	The industrialist called the personal-life questions that
characterized the session -- as well as the entire presidential campaign
-- as ``mud wrestling.''
	``Anybody want to know if I use fingernail polish?'' he said,
exasperated. ``Does anybody have any serious questions?''
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