Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990 TAG: 9007310165
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
beginning a weeklong trip that will take him to six states - says he'll be spending more time at home in the months to come.
"I'll be spending far more time in Virginia in the next six months and the rest of my tenure, and still trying to participate at the level of speaking out on issues that affect my state," Wilder said Monday on a live, call-in show on the C-Span network.
But then, Wilder's jet-setting - he has been out of the state more than one out of every four days since taking office - may already have accomplished his main goal: to get noticed as a national figure.
In the latest issue of The New Republic magazine, columnist Fred Barnes quotes Wilder strategists as saying that the governor has spent so much time traveling around the country this spring and summer because he knew that if he waited, he risked being overshadowed by other rising political stars coming out of this fall's election.
Indeed, Wilder had to share space on New Republic's cover this week with a fellow Democrat who hasn't even won a governorship yet - Dianne Feinstein, the party's nominee in California.
If Wilder holds to his promise to scale back his national travels, he's going out in a big way.
This week, Wilder's whirlwind schedule will take him from coast to coast, covering six states and the District of Columbia. It includes one day, Thursday, in Virginia.
Monday, he was in Mobile, Ala., for the National Governors Association conference, and made two appearances on national television - NBC's "Today" and the C-Span call-in, where he fielded questions ranging from property taxes in Petersburg to what Virginia has done to help Lithuania achieve independence.
Wilder also got in a dig at President Bush's proposal to set a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local income taxes that can be deducted on federal income tax returns.
The proposal would generally affect only upper-income taxpayers, but Wilder said he was still opposed.
"I feel it's a matter of getting the camel's nose under the tent. And once you start bringing it to $10,000, then you bring it down to five, then to four, then to none," Wilder said. "It's an increase in taxes that we can ill afford to pay at this time."
Despite claims that he has spent "as much time in Virginia as my predecessors," Wilder appears to be establishing a Virginia record for out-of-state travel by a first-year governor. His predecessor, Gerald Baliles, spent eight days outside the Old Dominion during his first year in office but came under some criticism later in his administration for making seven trade missions abroad.
Former Gov. Charles Robb, who also was criticized for courting national office, made 30 stops in 14 states during his first seven months in office in 1982, according to The Daily Progress newspaper in Charlottesville. Wilder has spent all or parts of 51 days outside Virginia in his first 199 in office. He will have made 60 stops in 16 states and Washington, D.C., by Sunday, about two weeks shy of the seven-month milestone.
Wilder brushed off several questions about whether he'll run for president, and what he'll do after he leaves office in 1994. After being governor, Wilder said, "you can participate in the political forum at any number of levels, but it would be hypothetical to say I've even considered" a presidential race.
Nevertheless, he's keeping the schedule of someone with his eye on the national ticket. Later Monday, Wilder was to be in Houston to address a black lawyers' group. He flies to New York to speak to a dentists' convention today and the National Urban League on Wednesday.
On Friday, it's on to Aspen, Colo., to speak to an international think tank, and to Los Angeles for the National Association of Black Journalists.
Saturday and Sunday, he'll be in Chicago for the American Bar Association convention. After that, he takes a break. His schedule doesn't show another out-of-state appearance until Aug. 27, when he speaks to B'nai Brith in Dallas.
According to Wilder spokeswoman Laura Dillard, Wilder is receiving about 300 speaking invitations a week.
"I think most Virginians appreciate that we have governor who's in demand," Dillard said. "When he goes out of state, he brags on Virginia. It gives him a chance to meet with business people and see what's going on in other states."
Landmark News Service contributed information for this story.
by CNB