Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210196
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Almost exactly a year before, I had fixed lunch (stuffed shells with meat sauce) for candidate George Allen in Cifax and passed a pleasant hour in the hurly-burly of his drive for the Republican nomination. Since then, he has made believers of many people and demonstrated a mastery of politics rarely seen.
But all that has left him remarkably unchanged. The new governor seemed very much like the old George Allen: relaxed, upbeat, unimpressed with himself and his new, august surroundings. "Excellency," I said, anxious to strike the right note, "it's great seeing you behind that desk." But he was having none of that: "Oh cut that out; I hate that word."
Having spent so many years in politics, I feel silly asking traditional political questions. But little personal asides are something else. You had to go back to Linwood Holton (1970-74) to find a governor who had come almost overnight from relative obscurity to the state's highest office. While hardly a novice after eight years in the House of Delegates and 14 months in Congress, Allen had never occupied a position of real power.
How did the governorship compare? Wilder had said nothing really prepares you for it. It was, Allen said, easier than he anticipated - in many ways a less difficult job than trying to be in three places at once in Congress.
What about the perquisites of the job, such as life inside that lovely old house on Capitol Square, home to Virginia governors for 175 years? Echoing Wilder, he said the staff takes great care of you. But getting a good night's sleep hadn't been easy. The executive mansion sits just above a fairly busy street on the back, and with the persistent noise of sirens going to nearby MCV Hospital, he had threatened to hang a thick cowhide over the window. But Susan Allen, who sleeps soundly, vetoed that.
The governor related a story of a recent trip to Staunton. On a whim, he decided to spend the night at his log cabin in Albemarle. The peace and quiet was so delectable, he almost felt he should stay awake to enjoy it!
The governor's suite seemed very calm, almost somnolent in the aftermath of the crush created by having to review all bills passed by the '94 assembly within the prescribed time. But a great deal of business had been transacted in the first 100 days of the Allen administration, including the creation of his Blue Ribbon Strike Force on efficiency in government and his commission on parole and sentencing reform. He was proud of the fact the strike force would be soliciting suggestions from state employees by the cheap device of enclosing the request with their regular paycheck.
After toying with the notion of an early special session of the legislature to receive his proposals to revamp parole and sentencing - which had been the centerpiece of his campaign - he had wisely postponed it until September to give his commission more time. He was aware that when you eliminate parole, you must tailor sentencing to that fact or face impossible overcrowding in the prisons.
His first big test had been winning approval for the package of incentives thought necessary to bring Disney's America to Virginia. He did not seem miffed that Democratic leaders had led him a merry chase, and said legislative tinkering was only to be expected. When I suggested that Disney had been wedded to the site all along, the governor said only he never felt in all the contentious debate there was any real danger of it slipping away.
In leaving, I recalled the sole advice Calvin Coolidge said he gave his successor: "In this job, never do anything that somebody else can do for you." It hardly seemed necessary. Allen seemed wonderfully composed and not the least daunted by the enormities of the job. While always engaging and convivial, he has shown an iron determination to shape state government in his conservative image and win the big ones. Still facing a legislature controlled by the other party and with so little time to make his mark, that is as it should be.
Allen has vigorously wielded the gubernatorial pen, probably vetoing more bills than any governor this century. One surprise was his veto of House Bill 11, patroned by Del. Robert Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, and passed with hardly a dissenting vote. This bill, discussed at length in this space two weeks ago, would grant incumbent members of Congress the right to choose whether to be renominated by primary or convention.
The bill was of particular interest because of recent controversy over the standing of Sen. John Warner in the Republican Party. I discussed the bill with Del. Purkey and was under the impression it would be a godsend to Warner, who is in hot water with GOP loyalists for refusing to endorse Michael Farris, Allen's running mate last fall, and for blasting Oliver North as unfit to serve in the Senate. That is, Warner might have difficulty winning a convention but a far better chance in a primary.
In that view, I was wrong, as Warner pointed out in a letter to Allen. Warner said he took no position on the bill because his situation was already protected by existing law. Since he was nominated by primary in 1990, albeit one in which he was the only candidate to file, state law gave him an unqualified right to be nominated by primary again.
The senior senator made it clear he planned to seek re-election in 1996. While the implication was that he would seek the GOP nomination by primary, he passed up the chance to make that point absolutely clear.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB