Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 24, 1994 TAG: 9401240014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
The day after George Allen's landslide victory for governor, a group of jubilant supporters gathered in a basement office in a far Southwest Virginia county seat to divide the spoils of victory.
Republicans statewide were celebrating the end of a 12-year hiatus from power. But those in the room knew it was closer to forever since a governor had tapped anyone from the state's coal-mining corner for a first-tier executive post.
"Our thought was, we wanted one cabinet position out of the southwest," said state Sen. William Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, who was part of the group.
Before the meeting adjourned, they had settled on a slot - secretary of public safety - and a man to lobby for - Jerry Kilgore of Gate City, a former federal prosecutor and son of Scott County's most prominent Republican family.
Twiddling a rubber band and flashing an easy-going smile, Secretary of Public Safety-designee Kilgore sat last week in his new office overlooking the Capitol.
About 48 hours removed from Senate hearings in which he met the toughest grilling of any of Allen's cabinet choices, the 32-year-old Kilgore was philosophical about the bruising.
How, senators had wanted to know, can a man whose rural county had one murder in 1992 hope to comprehend the problems of urban areas where murders occur as often as one every third day? How could a man whose last government job was as a part-time assistant to the commonwealth's attorney of Scott County expect to oversee 16,000 employees, a $2.2 billion budget, and agencies ranging from the state police to the prison system?
State Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, who later voted with the full Senate to confirm Kilgore, had scolded, "I think you have an appalling lack of understanding about the core problem of public safety in Virginia."
The nominee was understanding. "They looked out and saw someone that looked real young," said Kilgore, who conveys the fresh-faced pleasantness of a Methodist youth leader, which he is. "They saw someone from Southwest Virginia at a time they felt urban crime is more important."
Partisanship, skepticism about his age, and an anti-rural bias probably all figured in the attack, he said. "But crime is not an urban, suburban or rural issue. . . . We have to deal with the root causes of violence, and those are the same throughout the state."
How Kilgore made the leap from Scott County to Richmond is as puzzling to some Republicans as to Democrats. But, to admirers, there is little mystery about either his selection or, they believe, the source of his opposition.
"He is a whole lot like the present governor - pleasant, likable, but with a toughness about him," said U.S. District Court Judge Glen Williams, senior judge in the Abingdon court where Kilgore was the senior federal prosecutor in a two-attorney office from 1986 to 1992. "I consider him to be the best assistant U.S. attorney in the 17 years I've been on the bench."
As for the critics, "It was regional bias. . . . For some jerk senator from Northern Virginia to make an asinine remark that a man he doesn't even know is not qualified - it sent me boiling," Williams said.
The Senate approved Allen's cabinet appointees, including Kilgore, last week; a House committee will interview them today; and the full House is expected to confirm them later this week.
Intimates of both Kilgore and Allen say the selection had multiple roots: the men share a laid-back style and an intensity about such issues as abolishing parole. Kilgore's federal job gave him intimate knowledge of federal sentencing procedures at a time Allen wants the state to adopt similar rules. Allen owed a political debt to Southwest Virginia. And Kilgore was helped by the lobbying of Williams, for whom the governor clerked after law school, and House Minority Leader Vance Wilkins of Amherst.
Kilgore also had at least two advantages over the man believed to have been his chief rival, Richard Cullen, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
He is likely to keep a lower profile than Cullen, an oft-quoted mover in anti-violence efforts in the Richmond area. And in contrast to Cullen, who pushed Virginia's one-a-month handgun purchase law, Kilgore opposes gun controls. Gun laws already on the books have not reduced crime and "I don't see how further restrictions on guns is the answer," said Kilgore, who does not own guns.
Members of the National Rifle Association - which reported spending about $150,000 on Allen's election - and other pro-gun groups lobbied Allen's office with telephone calls and mailings opposing Cullen's selection.
Wilkins, an NRA supporter, also is widely believed to have carried that message. In an interview, he declined to say whether he actively opposed Cullen, but called Kilgore "philosophically more compatible with Allen and myself."
Wilkins also speculated that Allen may have preferred Kilgore's rural twang to someone from "the silk-stocking district of Richmond." Cullen was named to head Allen's commission on abolishing reform.
Further assisting Kilgore were his deep political roots. He is stepping down as 9th District GOP chairman to move to Richmond with his wife and child; his identical twin brother, Terry, is the newly elected delegate from Scott and Lee counties; his father is the Scott County Republican chairman; and his mother - the local registrar - led a lawsuit a decade ago that allows registrars to keep their jobs when the governor's office switches parties.
For those puzzling over how to tell the brothers apart, the secretary-designee suggests: Terry's face is squarer, his hair is cut about one-half inch shorter and, most days, there's a House of Delegates pin in his lapel. Acquaintances of the pair, who roomed together at Clinch Valley College and later at William and Mary Law School, say Terry is more outgoing, Jerry has a more organized, analytical mind.
As secretary, Kilgore hopes to help Allen bring a tough-on-crime agenda to the fore. His management style, he said, will be hands-off, focusing on broad policy and problem areas, but not meddling in day-to-day matters.
Acknowledging his weakness in prison management, he has recruited as deputy a former prison warden and correction consultant.
Even so, skepticism is rampant among Democrats. "I have deep concerns. This is a tall order," said state Sen. Edward Holland, D-Arlington, who heads the Senate committee that handles criminal justice legislation.
Political opponents back home do not underestimate either Kilgore brother, however, and expect that one or both will someday seek higher office.
"At 32, you've got a cabinet secretary and a guy elected," said Jonesville attorney George Cridlin, the Democrat who lost to Terry Kilgore in November. "They're worth watching. . . . I'm not ever going to sell them short."
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