THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 12, 1994 TAG: 9409120067
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's raspberry of the week went Friday to The Washington Post for its report on the endorsement of incumbent U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb by legendary civil rights leader Oliver Hill.
``Another Deserts Wilder'' read the headline, which Wilder recalled verbatim as he paused for an interview Sunday after a campaign appearance at the 1,500-member Fifth Baptist Church. Not until the article's last sentence did it note that 64 ministers, including Richmond's mayor, had endorsed him, Wilder said, his voice rising in irritation.
``It reminds me,'' he said, ``of the story Jesse Jackson told, of how if everybody went across the water in boats and he walked across the water, the headline would read, `Jesse Can't Swim.' ''
It has been, as the vignette told by the nation's first elected black governor suggests, the best and worst of weeks in his independent campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Wilder emerged in the eyes of many, including newspaper editorial writers in Richmond and Norfolk, as the winner of Tuesday night's nationally televised debate among the four Senate candidates. The result, aides say, is an unprecedented flurry of contributions and pledges of support.
With three polling organizations slated to unveil survey results this week, Wilder predicts that Robb will have slipped, he will have gained, and voters generally will have begun to recognize that he is the best hope to keep Republican Oliver North out of the Congress.
``The phone is literally ringing off the hook,'' said an obviously energized Wilder. ``Me, with no party backing, no commercial advertising at this point. It's amazing . . . it's truly amazing,'' he said.
But it was also a week that began with the endorsement of Robb by the state's highest-ranking black elected official, 3rd District Rep. Bobby Scott. Later came the defection of Hill, who is the dean of civil rights lawyers in the state and Wilder's occasional bridge partner.
The elderly Hill's endorsement letter was particularly cutting, alleging that Wilder has ``abandoned the Democratic Party of Virginia and the members of the Black Caucus and placed in jeopardy the best interests of the Black Caucus, the Virginia Democratic Party and the people of Virginia.''
Interviews suggest that black voter groups in Richmond and across Southside Virginia are poised to endorse Robb. As Wilder's campaign also appears to be picking up steam, the growing fear of many Democrats is that Wilder and Robb will so split the traditional Democratic base that North will be elected.
``It looks like that's what's going to happen,'' lamented David Hall, an admissions counselor at Richmond's Virginia Union University as he walked across campus last week.
About 19 percent of the state's population is African American, and those voters historically have been the Democratic Party's most dependable constituency. Political scientists estimate that Wilder got 96 percent of the black vote and 41 percent of the white vote in his 1989 election for governor.
While not quite reaching Wilder's level of support, Robb also has been a consistently strong vote-getter among African-American voters.
The fourth candidate in the Senate race, former Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman, argues that he will be the beneficiary of dissension on the Democratic side.
Wilder, a Richmond attorney who has exhibited a gambler's instincts during a 25-year political career, downplayed the endorsements of Robb by prominent blacks. In addition to Scott and Hill, Bishops L.E. Willis Sr. and Samuel Green, who represent about 150 churches across southern Virginia, and Sen. Henry Marsh of Richmond have backed Robb. Marsh and Wilder were roommates at Howard University law school in the 1950s.
The former governor suggested that Democratic officeholders have little choice but to back the party's nominee and that his endorsements by several hundred black ministers, some of which are still to be announced, far outweigh those for Robb.
Wilder refused to comment on the Hill endorsement except to say that the ``effect it will have on the campaign is negligible, if any,'' and that ``a lot of people in the community think it's Marsh's doing.'' Marsh, who has had an on-again, off-again political rivalry with Wilder for years, is Hill's law partner.
The overall effect of the Robb endorsements, he said, is that ``it shows the weakness of the Robb campaign that they have to trot out surrogates . . . I have the overwhelming support of the black community.''
Indeed, when Wilder spoke briefly at the thriving First Union Baptist Church in South Richmond Sunday morning, the congregation broke into song at his advice: ``Let the work that I have done speak for me . . . '' As Wilder moved through the congregation shaking hands, parishioners softly sang a hymn by that name.
``My vote is going to be cast for the man with the best record, and in my opinion, the governor's record is beyond reproach,'' said Jesse Frierson, a Richmond businessman who accompanied Wilder Sunday.
In interviews last week, however, some black Virginians said they'll be voting for Robb, both because they think Wilder should have run in the Democratic primary and because they believe Robb's record is good.
Wilder has run as a Democrat in previous elections, but won't say which party he'd caucus with in Washington. He pushed the Democrats to hold a primary election to nominate their Senate candidate, but then backed out of the contest. When Robb was nominated, Wilder launched his independent bid.
``Robb's governorship on balance made more of a difference in black life in Virginia than Doug Wilder's,'' said Avon Drake, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University. Drake, who is black, argued that Wilder had a good record ``if viewed as a moderate white governor,'' but did little to enhance life for black people.
Robb, who was governor from 1982 to 1986, ended a decade of Republican control of the statehouse.
Drake is among those who say that Wilder's motivation in running is largely to defeat Robb, with whom he has had a political rivalry for many years. ``He cares more about causing Robb to lose than whether he wins or North wins,'' Drake said.
But Wilder ridiculed that charge. ``I never mention his name anywhere. I never do,'' unless it is brought up by others, Wilder said. During Tuesday's debate, for instance, he intimated that Robb is unfit for the Senate because of his social involvement as governor with a group in which drug use was prevalent. The complaint was first raised by moderator Judy Woodruff, Wilder said.
Robb has denied ever using drugs or knowingly being in the presence of drugs.
Asked whom he most wants to beat this fall, Wilder replied, ``Any of the three.''
But he also said he doesn't fear North's winning. ``The danger lies in that we would not have that quality of leadership'' that Virginians are used to, Wilder said. Then again, he added, in his view that leadership is already missing.
``Chuck Robb,'' he said, ``what have you done?.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON/
L. Douglas Wilder sings a hymn with his assistant Jesse Frierson and
church members Joyce and Mel Johnson, to his right.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE ELECTION by CNB