Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992 TAG: 9202230106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN F. HARRIS THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
IT'S TERRY'S TIME TO MOVE, BEYER'S TIME TO STAND STILL
For the past two years, Lt. Gov. Donald Beyer has been the Virginia Democratic Party's fair-haired boy. Now he runs the risk of going gray before he gets his next promotion.Beyer, the state's second-highest officeholder, has signaled that he intends to seek re-election next year, rather than oppose Attorney General Mary Sue Terry for the party's nomination for governor.
Beyer, 41, said he doesn't intend formally to announce his plans until spring, and he doesn't rule out changing his mind. But for now, he concedes, "I've certainly not put any of the mechanisms in place that would make a run for governor plausible."
There lies a peculiar paradox. Praised by Democrats as one of the hottest new properties in state politics, and regarded by Republicans as an imposing rival, Beyer nonetheless has been forced into a holding pattern.
After herself yielding to Gov. Douglas Wilder's ambitions four years ago by not challenging him for the Democratic nomination, Terry has garnered a virtually insurmountable lead in money, name recognition and momentum among the Democratic activists who will award their party's top prize in 1993.
"In politics, everything is timing," said Del. Alson Smith, D-Winchester, a Terry supporter. "Don's time isn't here just yet. Mary Sue's time is now."
The question for Beyer is whether he can retain the luster he gained after his upset victory in 1989 while serving in a post that some view as the political equivalent of being locked in an empty room.
In Virginia, the lieutenant governor's only constitutional responsibilities are to preside over the state Senate and break tie votes. Though the job is a proven launching pad to run for governor, its true appeal is measured by the fact that no person has sought re-election as lieutenant governor since the 1950s.
Wilder, who held the post before being elected governor in 1989, described the job before he held it as "a rather vacuous position. You just rap the gavel and do what a page for the most part could do."
But Beyer is trying to redefine his role. Legislators said he has been more active than his predecessors in promoting policies and legislation. The centerpiece of his agenda is a tax-cut proposal that Beyer argues will encourage savings, help business and spur the state's recession-plagued economy.
Beyer said he is not worried that his star will fade if he doesn't seek a promotion now.
"Rising stars tend to be shooting stars that burn right out," he said. "I am an incrementalist. The sturdiest structures are the ones that you build brick by brick."
But Wilder, just the other day, warned that Beyer runs a risk in waiting. "It's tough to maintain high visibility at that level," he said. "The problem is: How do you keep momentum?"
On the other hand, with Wilder suffering low public approval ratings and Democrats generally on the defensive after their poor showing in the fall's legislative elections, some argue that Beyer is smart to allow Terry to step to the plate in what promises to be an unfavorable political climate in 1993.
Beyer's affable style has left him with few strong critics in either party. His promise as a politician, legislators say, lies in a combination of intelligence (he said he once scored a perfect 1,600 on the Graduate Record Exam) and discipline (last year, he set a goal to jog 1,000 miles, then beat the target by 25 miles).
Head of his family's Falls Church Volvo business until the 1989 race, Beyer was given virtually no chance of winning the lieutenant governor's job. But he outworked one opponent to win the Democratic nomination, then toppled heavily favored Republican Eddy Dalton in the general election.
But the last two years have been a lesson in limits. While Terry has a large staff at her command as attorney general, Beyer has had to supplement his own small office with volunteers and people paid by political contributors.
Beyer still has a $1.4 million debt to retire from his 1989 campaign. By contrast, Terry has a large surplus; at a single Richmond fund-raiser late last year, she raised almost $600,000.
Beyer's tax-cut proposal, likewise, is facing tough sledding. He wants to exempt the first $250 earned from savings from the state income tax, and give a $10,000 tax credit for corporate investments.
Although Beyer said the measures would pay for themselves in increased economic activity, Wilder has criticized the cuts as too expensive. Beyer's plan, which has won support from the Assembly's Republican minority, still is alive in the legislature, but it was watered down by a House committee so the tax changes wouldn't take place for two years.
Terry, meanwhile, is enjoying probably her highest-profile legislative session during the six years she's been in office. Both the House and Senate have passed bills she supported allowing driver's licenses of people who test positive for drunken driving to be temporarily revoked before they are convicted at trial.
Aware that she is unlikely to be challenged by Beyer, Terry - who has been criticized as being overly cautious and a bit wooden in style - appears more at ease politically than before. Terry herself agrees, "You can sense a shift. . . . It's a good feeling."
Conventional wisdom in Richmond has it that Beyer and Terry have "struck a deal," an arrangement by which he has agreed not to challenge Terry in exchange for her support of his future political endeavors.
Beyer insists that there is no deal. But he acknowledges that a tension that had crept into their relationship subsided after the two of them had a long talk last year discussing their likely plans. "We are mutually supportive," he said.
Some Republicans have hinted that Beyer may not run for either governor or lieutenant governor in 1993, concentrating instead on trying to win the Senate seat that may be open in 1994 if incumbent Democrat Charles Robb does not seek re-election because of his political and legal problems.
"Bad rumor," Beyer said. "I intend to be on the ticket in 1993." But he said he would be interested in the Senate if a seat were open. "The United States Senate has always been my highest ambition."
Beyer does have changes in store on the personal front. His wife, former Northern Virginia news broadcaster Megan Carroll Beyer, is expecting a baby in April. Beyer has two children from a previous marriage.
For now, he has little choice but to place his policy agenda ahead of his political one. Beyond the tax cuts, he is pushing less controversial measures that would establish adult literacy and workplace training programs, and expand foreign trade through export-loan guarantees.
Beyer believes his patience will pay off in the end.
"Yes, you have to be patient, but you have to keep working all the time," he said. "If I ever am governor, I want to be as well-grounded and thoughtfully prepared as I can."
Keywords:
POLITICS