Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130498
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No, we're not on a psychedelic trip back to 1969 - when many Virginians were so high on Linwood Holton that they thought he'd surely end up in the Oval Office one day.
It's not former Gov. Linwood Holton, the man who ended a century of Democratic rule in Virginia's Executive Mansion, but his son, Dwight C. Holton, who's made it to the White House.
The younger Holton - whose famous Republican namesake was Dwight D. Eisenhower - is part of President Clinton's kiddie corps. The 27-year-old - born in Roanoke; raised in GOP politics - is special assistant to Clinton's deputy chief of staff.
Dwight Holton bolted the Republican Party several years ago. He did advance work for Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign. Later, he joined Gov. Wilder's 1989 campaign and served for a while as special assistant to the secretary of health and human resources in the Wilder administration.
Doubtless, some Virginia Republicans are disappointed that such a bright, young man - by all accounts a crackerjack comer as a political strategist - would jump ship.
Not so his dad. The senior Holton says he and his wife raised all four of their kids to "use their heads. You can't complain when they do."
Anyway, maybe it's not so much a case of Dwight Holton deserting the GOP as the GOP deserting him.
His father, recall, was a moderate Republican, who was able to attract unprecedented support from Virginia Democrats, including many blacks, to win the governor's office in 1969.
These days - and, sad to say, especially in Virginia - few and far between are centrist, progressive GOP candidates who fit the Holton family mode.
by CNB