Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100204
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
HE ASKED NO ADVICE, HAS NO REGRETS
A relaxed Wilder said his surprising withdrawal from the race for president germinated in mid-December, when he saw Virginia's economy would continue to falter. He had to choose between stepping up his campaign outside the state, or coming home.
In the end, Gov. Douglas Wilder said, he shut out all his advisers and did some soul-searching about his presidential campaign.
He concluded late last week that it was time to end his quest for national office. Wilder decided that he had miscalculated by insisting he had time to mount a credible presidential campaign and tend to state government.
"Obviously, I was wrong," Wilder said Thursday, less than 24 hours after he announced the end of his presidential campaign at the close of his State of the Commonwealth speech to the legislature.
"I can't run the state and run for president," Wilder said. "You can't do those two things well. I've never run for office before and not devoted full time to it."
During a 20-minute chat with reporters, Wilder appeared more relaxed than he had in weeks. He offered neither apologies nor regrets for the 118-day national campaign that deeply weakened his popularity with Virginians, saying he believed he contributed significantly to the national debate.
The governor disputed widespread analyses that his campaign was bereft of money, momentum and ideas and that he pulled out just in time to avoid an embarrassing finish in the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary.
"I had the money to run credibly," said Wilder, and polls showed him running well in the early primary states of Maryland and South Carolina.
And the bug to seek national office may not be entirely gone. Wilder repeatedly declined to say whether he would accept a nomination for vice president if it is offered this summer, and he would not rule out another race for the White House in 1996. "There are many people who have said that would be a better time for me," he said.
Nor would Wilder dismiss the much-rumored possibility that he might try to unseat longtime rival and fellow Democrat Charles Robb in a 1994 nomination fight for the U.S. Senate. Wilder's term expires in January 1994.
"It would be silly for me to say I will do thus and so," he said. "But right now, I'm not running for anything."
Right now, Wilder said, he merely wants to be governor.
Wilder said he began to have second thoughts about his presidential campaign in mid-December, when Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted that the nation's economy would continue to sag. "My people were saying the same things about the state's picture, and a lot of things came to fruition."
At the same time, he said, aides were pressing him to spend 10 of the first 18 days in February in New Hampshire. "If I was going to run, I had to step up my campaign," he said. "I would have had less time to devote to Virginia and that would have conflicted with the oath I took."
Wilder said he did not discuss his doubts with anyone. To the contrary, he encouraged aides to continue their campaign planning. Although many in his campaign said they had difficulty getting Wilder's attention during the final week, none realized why. Wilder said he also did not consult his family.
The first person Wilder told of his decision to leave the race was his son, Larry. That happened Sunday, while both were attending the Washington Redskins football game. At dinner that night, he told his daughter Loren and the next day called his other daughter, Lynn, in New York. "They were prepared to accept my decision," he said.
Monday, he told only one adviser: press secretary Glenn Davidson, who was sworn to secrecy and ordered to help Wilder prepare the news. And shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday - less than two hours before the speech - Davidson began to call Wilder's top aides to spread the word.
No one had an inkling: not J.T. Shrosphire, Wilder's chief of staff; not Paul Goldman, Wilder's closest political adviser; not even Joe Johnson, the campaign manager. Wilder played so close to the vest that he dispatched two bodyguards earlier Wednesday to South Carolina and Georgia, where weekend campaign appearances had been scheduled.
Why all the secrecy?
"I didn't want anyone to talk me out of it or be encouraged to go further," Wilder said.
Keywords:
POLITICS