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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200560
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIA'S GOP TOYS WITH UNITY

IT WAS only five years ago that Wyatt Durrette, his Republican gubernatorial nomination assured, was maneuvering to keep Marshall Coleman off the No. 2 spot on the ticket. In 1981, Coleman had been the party's standard-bearer. By 1985, when Coleman was a candidate for the nomination for lieutenant governor, Durrette's convention managers wouldn't even let him announce his fifth-ballot withdrawal before every last humiliating vote was tallied.

The upshot: Durrette got whom he wanted (John Chichester) on the ticket. Democrats swept in November.

It was little more than a year ago, during the Republicans' 1989 gubernatorial primary campaign, that Coleman was accusing Paul Trible of being "a quitter" who "decided to put self-interest" above party and president. It was during the same campaign that Trible was calling Coleman "a loser" who was soft on crime and drugs.

The upshot: Coleman defeated Trible for the nomination. Democrats swept in November.

So when Durrette, Coleman and Trible this week urged a renewal of party unity to put the GOP "back on a winning course," they had reason to know whereof they spoke. Each man has tasted the bitter fruit of electoral defeat which grew at least in part from GOP disunity.

Even so, there are a few ironies in this launching of "Virginia Republicans United" to promote intraparty harmony and to recruit capable GOP candidates. The fact that each man in his time has been not only a taster of the bitter fruit, but also a sower of that fruit's seed, is only one of the ironies.

Another is that the GOP already has an organization to oversee the tasks proposed for Virginia Republicans United - or would have, if the state committee weren't itself riven by factionalism. The committee has been in a jam and will remain so until it bids adieu to Chairman Don Huffman and brings in a strong manager to whip party finances into shape. In establishing a new "unity" organization, the Durrette-Coleman-Trible trio may simply have added another faction to the mix.

Moreover, the proposed road to victory apparently is to beat up on the Democrats in the way Republicans heretofore have beaten up on each other. On the surface, that's fine; a natural and worthy function of a two-party system.

But the GOP's problem hasn't been simply the fact of infighting. The nature of the infighting also has ailed the party. When Trible claimed Coleman was soft on crime, the main effect was to make Trible look silly. Merely targeting Democrats rather than each other for such silliness is unlikely to solve anything.

On lower rungs of the political ladder, Virginia Republicans have had more success in convincing the electorate of their capacity to govern. With 39 of 100 members, the GOP contingent in the House of Delegates is at a high-water mark, and it could well climb higher after redistricting next year.

This past November, Republicans picked off two Democratic House seats in Southwest Virginia. In their winning campaigns, both Thomas Baker of Dublin and Bo Trumbo of Fincastle avoided irrelevant or wildly distorted charges against their Democratic opponents; consequently, each in his own right could be taken seriously by the voters.

Meanwhile, the GOP has yet to resolve the struggle over its soul between fundamentalist conservatives and traditional moderates. And the state will suffer without healthy two-party competition.

There is something odd about a Durrette-Coleman-Trible organization showing Republicans how to win elections. Maybe the job could be accomplished more effectively by those Republicans - most notably, those in the General Assembly now steadily rising in number - who in fact do win elections.

by CNB