Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994 TAG: 9401220012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Rarely, if ever, has a Virginian governor's leave-taking been marked by such absence of credit for his accomplishments, by such a void of gratitude for his efforts.
Is it fair - this thundering criticism from nearly every quarter?
Some of it is. In his four years as governor, Wilder has gone out of his way to torment those who once treated him as a pariah - especially fellow Democrats. He has not forgotten those who held secret meetings to keep him from running for lieutenant governor in 1985 - because he is black. He has not forgotten that he couldn't get into the University of Virginia Law School as a young man - because he is black. He's used his office to avenge every slight, real or imagined. And he has been unnecessarily divisive.
His vindictive streak was not merely a distraction; it undercut his effectiveness. So, too, his overweening ambition. As Wilder admits, his presidential run halfway into his gubernatorial term was pure folly, and harmed his standing with Virginia constituents.
There are public policies, as well, to question: maintaining his no-new-tax mantra, for example, at the expense of addressing major problems such as disparities in school funding, and at the cost of big cuts to higher education. Also, his interest in expanded trade with African nations aside, Wilder's leadership of economic-development efforts has been lackluster at best.
Even so, the governor's troubles seem to have stemmed less from policies than from style and personality. And from politics. Liberals felt betrayed by his fiscal restraint. Conservatives weren't about to give credit to Wilder. And it's hard to be popular in the General Assembly, or anywhere else, when you're handing out austerity instead of money.
Wilder himself has blamed racism on occasion. Racism, to be sure, is not dead in Virginia. Some still find it hard to accept that a black man sleeps in the Governor's Mansion in the capital of the Old Confederacy; they would disapprove of Wilder no matter what he did. Racism also works the other way: Wilder could only reach the top by being a fighter, and the barriers and slights he encountered along the way must have swelled the chip on his shoulder.
Yet Wilder's victory as the nation's first elected black governor was also a source of great pride to many Virginians, black and white. Many are disappointed he's not been the inspirational and uplifting leader they hoped he would be. Chief victim isn't a lot more becoming than chief avenger.
So what is the good word for Doug Wilder?
Well, for starters, the man who ended his inaugural address four years ago with the words, "I am a son of Virginia," has been true to one of the state's basic tenets: fiscal conservatism.
In part because of his liberal voting record while in the state Senate, in part because of prejudice regarding black politicians, many predicted he would launch a tax-and-spend frenzy that would be the state's ruination, or at least that he would mismanage its finances into a hopeless mess.
Wilder set out to defy those predictions, and the recession that hobbled the state's budget for most of his administration granted him the opportunity. By the end of his first year in office, he was being hailed nationally as a tight-fisted money manager from the Harry Byrd school of government.
As he leaves office, Wilder indeed has bragging rights. He's dealt with daunting budget shortfalls and new federal spending mandates without resorting to tax increases or massive layoffs of state employees, as was the fate elsewhere. His policies earned him recognition for running the best fiscally managed state in the country.
Wilder's budget cuts have produced pain and fury. But, to his credit, he tried to exclude from the worst cuts many safety-net programs for the poor, for children, for the elderly.
There are other good words for his administration: Wilder appointed a top-quality Cabinet. He pushed a major general-bond package for capital improvements at colleges, mental-health facilities and parks. He took on the formidable gun lobby to get better gun-control laws on the books.
He deserves more credit than he's gotten. And there's this to be said: The capital will be a duller place without him - though, of course, Wilder isn't leaving the political stage quite yet.
by CNB