By JOHN GOOLRICK

By JOHN GOOLRICK

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MppinannocN iwri npcciii writer

I had planned to devote this column to pre-election analysis, although I have to admit I wasn’t all that enthused about it since every other political writer in the state was doing the same thing.

Then I saw the car that had a bumper sticker on it that read: “Bill Dolan for Virginia Attorney General.”

Now that intrigued me. Bill Dolan was offering himself to the voters of our state in 1993 for the exalted position of Attorney General of Virginia. That was a valuable piece of information.

Except I had no idea at all who the heck was Bill Dolan.

Since I had recently seen the people who were seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general I figured that Dolan was not a member of that party. So my guess was that he is a Democrat.

I knew also that Dolan was neither a member of the United States Congress nor the Virginia General Assembly.

And it did not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that he is well-known only to his family and friends and that approximately 99 and three fourths of the people of Virginia whom he seeks to serve have never heard of Bill Dolan.

Vet Bill Dolan, providing he is an attorney who can practice in Virginia, has a constitutional right to run for an office now occupied by Mary Sue Terry who wishes to be elected governor next year.

After seeing the bumper sticker, I started imaging that Bill Dolan had hired me as his campaign manager for the longshot candidacy. Since he has roughly the name identification of the unknown soldier, what could I do to propel him to victory?

The first priority would be getting the nomination and he would not need vast name ID for that. , Bill Dolan, as he probably is now doing, would start ’ showing up for every chicken dinner or local meeting • held by Democrats. He would have to say over and over and over, “Hi, I’m Bill Dolan and I’m running for attorney general and I could sure use your help.” Then he would give out a small brochure with a biog\ raphy of himself and all the reasons he wants to be attorney general such as consumer protection and . helping the average man and woman.

Any time Bill met someone who showed the slightest glimmer of interest in his campaign he would take their name and immediately send them a thank you note, asking for their help in getting other Democrats to back him. He would need a few fund raisers so he could hire staff to help turn out troops