Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 15, 1993 TAG: 9303150565
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SURPRISE! TERRY'S RUNNING
SINCE about the time Mary Sue Terry was elected Virginia's attorney general in 1985, it's been assumed she would someday run for governor.Since 1989, when she chose to run for re-election, rather than battle then-Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, it's been assumed the year would be 1993.
Since January, when she resigned the attorney general's post, it's been assumed she's devoting full time to the campaign.
She has raised more than $2 million for a campaign.
Her only opponent for the nomination is a Lyndon LaRouche disciple.
Therefore, her formal announcement of her candidacy may for some have raised the question: Why bother?
Yet as ritualistic and anti-climactic as the round of appearances late last week may have been, it was not utterly without meaning or purpose.
For Terry, enjoying the luxury of a virtually free ride to the nomination, it was an opportunity to lay more groundwork for the fall campaign against the Republicans. For Virginians, it is an opportunity to reflect on how much the state's political scenery has changed.
And also how little.
The most obvious change is that Terry is a woman. In 1985, she became the first woman elected to statewide office in Virginia; this year, she will become the first female major-party nominee for governor of Virginia.
The picture of Terry as pioneer, however, is blurred by her long wait in the wings, and by the fact that her nomination - and election, if she wins in November - won't be the milestone that Wilder's '89 victory was.
Wilder became not only Virginia's first black governor, but also the first black person in America to be elected governor. By contrast, several other states now have, or recently have had, women governors.
The picture of Terry as pioneer is blurred even more by her own traditionalism. Hers has been a careful climb up the political ladder: election to the House of Delegates in the late '70s as a protege of her friend and neighbor, the late House Speaker A. L. Philpott; election as attorney general in 1985; now, the quest for the governorship.
Ideologically, too, she's been careful, keeping to the middle of the road and emphasizing generally noncontroversial (albeit often worthwhile) initiatives such as tighter laws against drunken driving.
The Democrats' nominee-to-be seems less a pioneer than part of a larger trend toward a greater and more visible presence of women in politics nationwide. This presence may be influencing the style of politics: In Richmond, Terry kicked off her campaign at a day-care center; in Roanoke, at the Bradley Free Clinic. Less clear is how much it influences the substance.
Meantime, the possibility shouldn't be dismissed that Terry's campaign will come up short in November. She has money, name recognition and a sure nomination, while the Republicans are still in the process of choosing from among three (male) contenders for the GOP nomination.
But that's only for now. A longer-term look shows that Republicans held the Virginia governorship for 12 years; the Democrats are now in their 12th year of control after recapturing it from the Republicans in 1981.
Cyclical swings are the stuff of two-party politics. To win, Terry must somehow prolong the Democrats' cycle in power.
Keywords:
POLITICS