Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408150050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Once more, Douglas Wilder is zig-zagging his way across Virginia. But this campaign, Wilder's circuitous route is less geographical and more philosophical, as the former governor tries to knit together an "odd couples" coalition for his independent bid for the U.S. Senate.
Wilder's swing through the New River and Roanoke valleys on Friday, a reprise of the famous "station wagon" tour he made during his first statewide campaign nine years ago, was typical.
He insisted he remains a Democrat.
But he refused to rule out caucusing with the Republicans if he's elected to the Senate, portraying himself as a potential power-broker even as a freshman.
"I won't have trouble getting my dance card filled," he said.
He praised President Clinton for his "courageous" decision to make health care reform a national priority.
But he also said he couldn't support the Clinton-backed health care bill now before the Senate, and zinged Democratic incumbent Charles Robb for being too supportive of the president.
"He's a go-alonger," Wilder said. "He supported [former President] Bush 75 percent of the time, too."
Wilder makes it plain that he would be more independent-minded.
At each stop, Wilder was greeted by a delegation of local black political activists, who usually embrace liberal stands on social issues, such as Wilder's call for more "diversity" in college faculties.
But Wilder also talked up his record for fiscal conservatism, calling for a balanced budget amendment, attacking "waste" in the federal government, even flirting with abolishing the U.S. Department of Education.
"We might want to revisit that," he said. "I think you've got a lot of fat and a lot of bureaucracy at the federal level."
Political analysts find Wilder's approach curious - but a shrewd calculation in a four-way race. "He's all over the political spectrum," said Virginia Tech's Bob Denton. "It's opportunistic, in terms of trying to pick and choose."
It's a reflection, Denton says, of Wilder's need to eat away at parts of Robb's Democratic base, while at the same time finding a way to exploit the anti-Washington, anti-Clinton political mood prevailing in the country.
"Basically, Doug Wilder is a politician," Denton says. "He's got to put together constituency groups, based either on demographics, psychographics or the issues. So he's a Democrat when it's convenient, he's an independent when it's convenient, he's pro-education when it's convenient, he's a tough fiscal manager when it's convenient."
Will it work?
That's harder to tell. Wilder's base, aside from black voters, "is hard to identify," says Tom Morris of Emory & Henry College. "There are some who see him as a major American success story but it's difficult to identify them as part of a particular group."
The heart of Wilder's message, though, is clear. He doesn't think much of Robb, and he emphasizes his own fiscal management of the state. Both points were on display Friday.
A Washington Post story this week contrasted Robb's career with that of another freshman Democrat, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
While Kerrey has emerged as a major player on policy issues, often challenging the administration, Robb has been less visible, and less likely to abandon the party line.
Instead, the Post noted Robb prefers to concentrate on more "arcane" matters: "He loves to preside over the nearly empty Senate chamber, a task others believe is a nuisance. He even boasts a plaque for having sat in the Senate president's chair for 100 hours during one session."
Wilder reacted disdainfully. "It's noncontroversial, it looks good on TV and some people might be fooled into believing it's doing something."
But he said Robb is concentrating on the wrong things. "Al Gore took on the environment, Jay Rockefeller took on health care, Bob Kerrey's taken on health care, Warren Rudman took on the budget and finance, Pat Moynihan took on welfare. People go there to do something."
And what would Wilder do?
"I'd want to make the system work," he said, by becoming a coalition-builder and deal-maker.
Wilder's swing through Western Virginia was mostly an inspection tour of state facilities set in motion during his term as governor - from $19 million worth of expansion at Radford University to the Virginia Veterans' Care Center in Salem.
It was an opportunity, Wilder said, to remind voters of his accomplishments as governor.
At Radford, though, he complained that he often is blamed for the 44 percent increase in tuition at state colleges between 1990 and 1993. "I never did that," he said.
Instead, he blamed the colleges themselves for raising tuition so much, saying administrators could have chosen to cut unspecified "fat" instead. Wilder praised Radford and James Madison University for "restructuring" their schools to eliminate what he saw as unnecessary programs, while saying some colleges had failed to do so.
Denton interpreted that as a slap at Virginia Tech, noting that Wilder had sparred publicly with Tech administrators over their spending priorities.
"It's not telling the whole truth," Denton said. "His philosophy and his budget had a direct correlation with tuition increases, with larger classes, with less choice, with less competitiveness and research being eroded."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB