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By JOHN GOOLRICK
Rappahannock Newt Special Writer
With current polls showing a close race between President Bush and Governor Clinton in Virginia the Ross Perot factor could have a major influence.
Though Perot gets only five percent of state voters as of this writing, his advertising campaign and participation in presidential debates could conceivably boost that figure.
But whether Perot can get into double digits will depend largely on whether enough people feel inclined to. steer away from both Clinton and Bush, one of whom is almost certain to be the next President of the United States.
With a few notable exceptions, Virginians have given scant support to third party presidential candidates in modem times.
Perot is unlikely, for instance, to come anywhere close to the 23.6 percent of the total state vote American Independent Party candidate George Wallace received in 1968, by far the most votes any third party candidate garnered in Virginia this century.
Most of the Wallace votes that year were taken from the hide of Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey who received just 32.5 percent of the total while Republican Richard Nixon was getting 43.4 percent.
The Wallace phenomenon was fueled largely by his populist message
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