Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 19, 1994                   TAG: 9409220018
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

WILDER'S RUN SEEN AS HIS LAST

``I'm not sure his heart ever would be in running again,'' Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist Robert Holsworth said. ``He burned a lot of bridges. He doesn't have the same power as he once had.''

Wilder dropped out of the race Thursday, faxing a six-paragraph statement saying, ``I will fight no more, forever.''

``As a public figure, he'll still be listened to,'' said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, ``but as a candidate, he would be laughed out of the room.''

Many acknowledge that, at least temporarily, Wilder's ineffectual bid for the Senate has diminished his achievements, the pinnacle of which was his 1989 victory as the nation's first elected black governor.

``There's got to be a reason for his low standing in the polls,'' said Laura Dillard, who was the governor's press secretary early in his administration, ``and it's not fair to say it's race. That's not the end-all, be-all. There were the feuds, the flirtations with other offices. You can't continue to do that.''

Paul Goldman, the consultant most associated with Wilder's successes, said Wilder often seemed not to have a plan beyond winning.

``Even as governor,'' Goldman said, ``there was no structure. I could never understand his strategy of the last couple of years. A lot of his friends agree with that. Hopefully, the puzzling pattern of getting in and out of races won't overshadow what he has accomplished.''

Without the infrastructure of his Democratic party and its fund-raising capacity, and faced in recent weeks with increasing defections of prominent blacks, Wilder realized victory would not be his.

``For this race, and the presidential run, he gets very low grades,'' Holsworth said, ``but he deserves quite a high score for lifetime achievement. While he ended his career with a series of abortive efforts to move up, placed in context, they really don't diminish the long-term historical legacy at all.''

In choosing to ``fight no more, forever,'' the 63-year-old Wilder grudgingly acknowledged that Virginia was no longer with him, as expressed in polls that showed him floundering around 12 percent.

But while he is unlikely to run again, no one expects the master showman to fade from the spotlight.

Even before his term as governor ended, Wilder was being discussed as a candidate for the presidency of Howard University, his law school alma mater, and as a possible contender for an ambassadorship. The Clinton administration reportedly dangled such an offer to get him out of the Senate race this summer.

Since then, his name has surfaced in connection with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where the executive director's post now is vacant.

Glenn Davidson, who has served Wilder both as chief of staff and Senate campaign manager, doubts that his boss has any desire to rescue a troubled university or civil-rights organization. Nor does he think Wilder's options are limited to black-oriented positions.

``He'll remain in the public eye, in an advocacy role,'' Davidson predicts, suggesting areas such as crime- and drug-prevention efforts and children's rights.

Keywords:
POLITICS