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Webb backers see stars

November 3, 2006 12:50 am

By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO and CHELYEN DAVIS

VIDEO: Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb speaks at Richmond rally.

Star power turned out yesterday to back Democratic challenger Jim Webb's bid for the U. S. Senate.

Celebrity Michael J. Fox appeared with Webb at a function last night in Arlington. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., appeared with Webb earlier in the day in Richmond.

Meanwhile, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., was endorsed by the Minutemen, a group opposed to illegal immigration, yesterday in Roanoke. Later in the day he met with workers at the Philip Morris plant in Richmond. Both events were closed to the public.

Webb supports federal funding for all stem-cell research. Allen does not.

For actor Michael J. Fox, the choice is simple.

"A vote for Jim Webb is a vote for hope of a better quality of life for millions of Americans," said Fox, who stumped for Webb at an Arlington bar and concert venue last night.

Fox, who has the neurological disorder Parkinson's disease and is an outspoken supporter of stem-cell research, noted that Allen voted against a bill that passed the House and Senate last summer to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. President Bush vetoed the bill.

Stem-cell research can be used in developing treatment and cures for cancer, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, Fox told a crowd of several hundred journalists and supporters at Clarendon Ballroom.

Webb, a Vietnam veteran and former official in the Reagan administration, is one of several Democrats Fox has endorsed.

The star of the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" and the "Back to the Future" movie trilogy has appeared in television advertisements supporting U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, and Clair McCaskill, who's running for a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.

The ads sparked a controversy when conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh accused Fox, who shakes uncontrollably as an apparent result of Parkinson's medication, of acting and being "really shameless."

Webb highlighted Limbaugh's behavior as an example of how conservatives seek to maintain power through "bullying."

"His illness is an act? What kind of bullying is that?" Webb said.

"No offense, but I think Rush Limbaugh knows a little bit about the use of prescription drugs," he added, referring to Limbaugh's 2003 admission to abusing prescription painkillers.

Webb said he's campaigned on the issues--not negative attacks against his opponent.

"I made a vow that I wouldn't change what I believe to get a vote or a dollar, and we have done that," said Webb.

Recent polls by CNN, Zogby Interactive and Rasmussen Reports show Webb with a slight lead.

Webb and Fox were joined by retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who campaigned to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2004.

Clark said voters need a chance from "a government that doesn't have a plan and a Congress that doesn't have the courage under Republican leadership to ask the right questions. Enough is enough."

Obama and Webb

Earlier in the day, Webb held a rally in Richmond featuring Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., along with former Govs. Mark Warner and Doug Wilder, and current Gov. Tim Kaine.

Several hundred people attended the event at Virginia Union University.

"It's five days before again in Virginia we make history," Warner told the enthusiastic crowd.

Kaine said this is "a time of such fundamental issues" and it's time for change in leadership.

"Who's ready to change Virginia? Who's ready to change America?" he said.

Obama, a potential candidate for president in 2008 and a star in Democratic circles--the crowd mobbed him, not Webb, after the rally for handshakes and autographs--said the country needs honest, practical leadership, not more cynicism.

"Over the last 10 years, we've been suffering under a politics that feeds on cynicism," he said. When people start paying attention, he added, "the folks in power right now are in trouble."

Obama urged the audience to get themselves and their friends and neighbors to the polls to help elect Webb.

Webb said he is proud of his campaign, and he expects to win Tuesday "with the knowledge that we've done this the right way.

"Momentum is on our side. Justice is on our side," Webb added. "Folks, we have five days. Let's do it!"

Allen's endorsement by the Minutemen was a natural. He is on record advocating a fence be built along the border with Mexico to help discourage illegal immigration, and he opposes any plan to give amnesty to illegal immigrants already in America.

"We must secure our borders. A nation that can't secure its own borders can't protect its own people," Allen said. "We need an actual fence, a virtual fence, more border patrol agents, and more detention facilities along the border. We cannot reward illegal behavior with amnesty. This is a fundamental difference between me and my opponent."

Webb favors providing a path toward citizenship for illegal workers who are here now.

Later in the day, Allen glad-handed Philip Morris workers at the company's production plant in Richmond.

The hand-shaking was closed to the press, but Allen took questions outside afterward, where he said he'd greeted about 1,000 workers and that it is "very encouraging to hear the support of people."

One of Allen's favorite campaign lines is to point out that semiconductor microchips have become a bigger export than cigarettes in Virginia, but he also said tobacco is still important to the state's economy.

"Tobacco and Philip Morris is a major, major employer," Allen said.

Despite polls showing the race to be neck-and-neck, Allen said he believes on Election Day, voters will choose the candidate they know best--himself.

"The people of Virginia know me, and I know them," he said. "It's not something you learn in six to eight months on the campaign trail."

He also said that as the end of the campaign nears, what people want to know is "where do you stand on issues, what are your solutions," not questions about character.

In Fredericksburg

Meanwhile, two statewide efforts to get out the vote for Webb held events yesterday in Fredericksburg.

"Women Choose Webb," an effort being led by former Congresswoman Leslie Byrne and state Sen. Toddy Puller held a series of press conferences around the state yesterday.

Byrne spoke to about 15 people at Caroline Street Cafe and Catering. She took on Allen's votes against the Family Medical Leave Act, and his criticism of Webb's war novels as explicit and obscene.

"There is nothing more obscene than sending our men and women in harm's way without an idea of how to bring them home," Byrne said. "If there's anybody who is going to ask the tough questions of this president, it's Jim Webb."

A little later, six veterans who have been traveling the state under the "Veterans for Webb" banner ended a two-day, six-city tour in Fredericksburg's Hurkamp Park, where they said Webb will provide leadership the Republicans have failed to show in dealing with the Iraq war.

"If I was thinking as a Marine what I could do most for the Corps right now," said Brian Humphrey, a retired lieutenant with the U.S. Marine Corps, "it would be to do everything I can to get Jim Webb elected."

About a half-dozen people gathered for the rally.

Staff writer Emily Battle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

To reach NATASHA ALTAMIRANO:540/368-5036
Email: naltamirano@freelancestar.com