"State Sen. Emily Couric, D-Charlottesville, is taking a major step toward a bid for lieutenant governor next year by opening a bank account for an exploratory campaign.

'If you want to do things well, you need some resources,' Couric said Monday. She said she is 'just doing some initial fund raising, probably to start building a staff.'

Couric voiced no preference between a primary next spring or a convention for Democrats to nominate their statewide ticket for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

'I am happy with either one, she said.

Democrats said that Couric is the party's leading candidate for lieutenant governor and has been meeting with small groups of party activists around the state.

'I think she's going to pre-empt our field pretty quickly' by getting out early and raising a Iot of money, Craig K. Bieber, executive director of the Virginia Democratic Party, said Monday.

'I wouldn't be surprised,' said Delegate Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville. He said Couric may raise so much money and present such a formidable candidacy that no other Democrat tries for the nomination. 'I think that is more or less her intention,' Van Yahres said.

Couric is considered a moderate Democrat in the Virginia Senate where she has specialized in education and health-care issues. She also is one of the General Assembly's foremost fundraisers. Her 1999 reelection campaign, raised $456,143, the second-highest total among the 40 senators elected in November.

'I would think she would do very well raising money,' Bieber said.

Couric said Monday that she deposited a $5,000 check for her statewide bid received Friday from Robert and Janice Aron of Keswick.

Janice Aron was the 53rd largest donor to Couric's successful 1999 Senate re-election campaign, having given $1,100 in two checks last year. Her husband, Robert, has given $2,820 to Delegate Paul C. Harris, R-Albemarle County, over the past three years and $2,500 in 1997 to the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Jim Gilmore.

Comic, 52, said she intends to campaign around Virginia this year for U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-McLean, who faces a stiff challenge from ex-governor George F. Allen.

She called Robb 'a great senator. He has a strong record. He's right on the [issues] and I'm going to help out wherever I can.'

Van Yahres said he hopes the Democratic Party will adopt a primary for its statewide ticket nominations in the spring of 2001.

'I think it sharpens the candidates,' Van Yahres said. 'I think it would be helpful for the party for candidates to get out there.'

Bieber said there is some movement within the party leadership toward switching to a primary" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, March, 28, 2000)