Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 21, Number 24, June 10, 1994

Virginia Democratic Primary

Nancy Spannaus says to fight crime, keep Ollie North out of the Senate

Nancy Spannaus, a leader of Lyndon LaRouche's political/ LaRouche movement on the economy, land our program, as philosophical movement, who has worked closely with him well as the principles which Alexander Hamilton worked out for 25 years, is running for the Democratic Party nomination to deal with such crises," she asserts. Principles with which for U.S. Senate from Virginia in the June 14 primary elec­ she has special familiarity: For 20 years she has been editor­ tion. "I am leading the fightto defeat the Bush Leaguers who in-chief of the movement's national ney.'spaper, and she co­ are now going after the presidency, including against that authored a book on the work of Hamilton, The Political spiritual 'son of a Bush,' Ollie North," the likely Republican Economy o/the American Revolution. nominee for Senate from Virginia, she told EIR's editors in a June 1 interview. Attitudes turned around Spannaus's third run for office (she ran for U.S. Senate In 1990 Mrs. Spannaus's campaig�, despite almost nil as an independent Democrat in 1990, and for governor of media coverage and a tiny budget, wo� a double-digit vote Virginia in 1993), intersects what promises to be one of the in the Senate race against John Warnet. In 1993, her cam­ hottest battles in next fall's U. S. elections, halfway through paign was key to defeating Attorney General Mary Sue Ter­ Clinton's first term in office. Charles Robb, the incumbent ry's gubernatorial bid. Now, she sayS!, "with the political senator, son-in-law of former President Lyndon Johnson and demise of Mary Sue Terry and George 8ush, and the release a member with William Clinton of the Democratic Leader­ of Lyndon LaRouche from prison, the political environment ship Council, is fightingto keep his seat in the face of a media has opened up enormously. I have spent a good deal of my scandal campaign centering around alleged sexual peccadil­ effort in this current campaign addressing Democratic Party loes. Besides Spannaus, Robb faces two other primary oppo­ gatherings on the financial crisis, and t� Whitewater assault nents, State Sen. Virgil Goode and Richmond lawyer Sylvia on the President. I was persona non grata at these meetings Clute. last year, when I was running against T�rry, but now people Whatever happens on June 14, Spannaus promises: "I are willing to listen to, if not like, what II have to say." will put my efforts heavily into defeating North, if he is the One major factor is that LaRoucher s enemies have less Republican nominee, as well as continuing to fightto support power, as their machine has fractured. Plus, "I am the only the presidency. We Democrats are going to have a lot to do. candidate among the four running fo.. Senate who is ad­ lt's expected that if Doug Wilder enters the race, so will dressing the issues on the national anlJ international level Marshall Coleman, with the backing of anti-North Republi­ which face our country-from the economy, to the threat can Senator John Warner." (Wilder, a bitter Robb rival, was of a United Nations dictatorship, to tbe threat against the the firstelected African-American state governor,and is said presidency. Politics in general is such a soap opera-people to be planning an independent campaign for Senate; Coleman find ideas something of a relief, even if they complain that was the Republican gubernatorial nominee whom Wilder it's over their head. beat in 1988.) "The worst thing about this free-for-all is that ''There have been major turnarounds in recognition of my most of it will not be based on anything to do with policy, campaign, since I am in the Democrati� primary. The press only personalities and dirt. The policy load will still fall on association which blackballed me last year,included me in their us." debate; the Christian fundamentalist group which refused to Spannaus sees her campaign in strategic terms: "I am interview me, did so this time; the AFL-CIOinterviewed me as helping lead a national slate put together by Lyndon well, although theyhad spumed me last time. In some of these LaRouche, in order to deal with the ongoing financial melt­ cases, these turnarounds are thedirect resultof Mary Sue Terry down of the speculative markets. The major thrust of my being out of political sight." Terryhad tried to make her years­ campaign has been to expose the fact that the collapse of the long persecution of the LaRouche movement into a feather in speculative bubble is inevitable, and what has to be done to her political cap, but it turned intoa min4s. reorganize the banking system, and to restart the physical "Not that I am getting equal treatment, by a long shot. economy on the right track. I am presenting the record of the The major state newspaper, run by o.d Virginia families,

EIR June 10, 1994 National 63

© 1994 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. the Richmond Times-Dispatch, just excised me from their lived in the state ten years, !but was born in Maine, grew up candidates' questionnaire-no explanation warranted. And in Ohio, and resided in Ne� York for nearly two decades. Associated Press and other media, like the Washington Post, "While African-Americans �ave reached some prominence routinely give me only a one-line reference-'supporter of in state affairs, the state is !still dominated by a plantation political extremist Lyndon LaRouche'-without any refer­ mentality. This becomes parlicularlyobvious when you work ence to anything I have to say." with working people. Virgipia is so anti-union, and conse­ To get her message out, she has been airing one-minute quently anti-worker, that y� find working people that long radio ads since March in the major population centers, "with for a day in New Jersey, w�ere they would get respect. In varying degrees of intensity. Most of them hit the financial fact, it's true in some of th� southern parts of the state that crisis and Whitewater-although I have tried to use humor it's more deleterious to be cluled a union activist, than to be as well against the usual 'spectator sport' attitude of most associated with Lyndon LaRouche." citizens toward elections." Of course, Virginia is n�t homogeneous: "The Washing­ Just before the printary, Spannaus's half-hour spot, "Yes, ton, D.C. area is relatively I well-to-do , and full of govern­ Virginia, There Can Be an Economic Recovery," was to be ment bureaucrats. There ar¢ also vast sections with estates shown six times in all the major media markets in the state. owned by the wealthy powerful families, the Harrimans, LaRouche and his record are featured in the show, with clips of Bronfmans, Mellons, Fires,ones, and du Ponts. Southwest his previous television shows and several live appearances," Virginia is almost a differept state, dominated by farming she said--including one endorsing Nancy Spannaus for Senate. and coal mining, and much pPorer.The area around Hampton The show, in which she denounces North for bringing massive Roads is dominated by the njlilitary and the port, and is more amounts of cocaine into the United States in special operations cosmopolitan than the rest of the state. steered by George Bush, will airin Washington, D.C. on June "Because of the heavy �rcentage of militaryspending in 6. "We hope that this will bring a reality into the capital, that the state and the proximity tq the federal government, Virgin­ will last beyond the election period." ia usually shows up as one (jlf the more prosperous states on What kind of economic issues face the state? "Virginia is the official charts-in term� of employment, incomes, and being wiped out by the same disastrous policies of financial so forth. But when you tra�el the state as extensively as I speculation which are destroying the nation and the world­ have, you see that most w�rking people are suffering, and with some added twists. The military cutbacks are hitting much more so now than five years ago. The coal mines are very hard, and threatening to tum the Tidewater, once a closing, the military-relate� factories are closing, DuPont is proud port center, into a gigantic gambling and video-tourist shipping jobs out of the cou�try, and agriCUlture is veryhard Monte Carlo. The mentality of selling the state to businesses hit-and not only in tobac�. What's left is gambling, fast such as Disney is very dominant here, because the ideology food shops, and tourist-rela�ed retail, not a formula for pros­ of plantation labor (or cheap labor) is so widespread." perity or a future for our chi�dren." Moreover, "Virginia has had a special bias against the A key piece of Spannau$ campaign literature is a booklet governmentrole in building infrastructure for many decades. presenting the evidence on t�e offiCial courtrecord, that Lyn­ During the New Deal, the Byrd political machine basically don LaRouche and his co-d�fendants were innocent of all the funneled everything into roads, and didn't want to see other charges of which they 1Vere convicted. (One of her infrastructurebuilt. Virginia was the last state to join the New spokesmen is her husband &d Spannaus, who served time in Deal programs. federal prison as a co-defen�ant with LaRouche.) "The most "I have stressed throughout this campaign, that a senator palpable impact of the cir�ulation of tens of thousands of takes an oath to the Constitution, and is not just an advocate these pamphlets, is that it h�s shut a lot of people up. Those for a particular state. There's much too much of this competi­ who would be blabbing al:lout Lyndon LaRouche being a tion between states, rather than looking at the needed eco­ criminal, have not said anything, because they have been nomic recovery as a national effort," she argued. "What confronted with the fact tqat the evidence is on the court Virginia needs is what most of the country needs-infrastruc­ record that the government �lways knew that LaRouche was ture. Particularly in the realm of energy and transportation innocent. and water. But to be able to fund the creation of the jobs "The idea of the circuilltion was also to embolden our building these projects, we are going to need a financial supporters, who have othenrise been intimidated by slanders overhaul-breaking with the Federal Reserve System, and about LaRouche. It's goiqg to take more time and more using a revived national banking system to direct credit to saturation. We are dealing lNith a process of poisoning peo­ the necessary projects." pie's minds against the LaRl.mche movement, which went on for close to 10 years. This vamphlet is the antidote, and we Confederate legacy hurts state will have hit a little less th� 2% of the Virginian population "Virginia suffers enormously from the legacy of its role by the end of the campai�n. That's good, but not good as capitol of the Confederacy," observed Spannaus, who has enough."

64 National EIR June 10, 1994