THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By JOHN GOOLRICK
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat who wants to run for governor in 1997, will be put to the test in the legislative races scheduled this fall.
While Beyer's name won't be on the ballot for anything, the prospective gubernatorial candidate, whom almost everyone agrees is a capable, bright, articulate nice guy, still has to demonstrate that he has the ability to help lead his own party to electoral success.
Acutally, Beyer is fortunate to be where he is now. He undoubtedly would have gone down to defeat in the Allen landslide of 1995 if Republicans had united behind their candidate for lieutenant governor, Mike Farris. Instead, GOP defections enabled Beyer to win a fairly close race. The first time around, Beyer was elected lieutenant governor in a walk.
During the recently concluded General Assembly session, Beyer was a player in opposing some of Governor Allen's programs and helping reach compromises on others such as welfare reform.
Yet his role in working against Allen's proposed tax and spending cuts was far overshadowed by that of such Democratic legislative leaders as Dels. Richard Cranwell, Bob Ball and V. Earl Dickinson, and Sens. Hunter B. Andrews Jr. and Richard Holland.
No matter whether the Republicans put up Attorney General Jim Gilmore or some other nominee for governor two years hence, Beyer will be in for a tough fight in a state that has increasingly gone Republican in elections at the federal, state and local levels.
And some political analysts think Beyer has to raise his profile and begin defining himself in sharper terms.
At the moment he is viewed by most as a centrist and one who likes to work out compromises. He is not quite a conservative and not quite a liberal. Yet in an increasingly polarized society, the center of the road might not be the safest place to stand.
With all 140 legislative seats up for election this fall and Democrats deathly worried about Republicans taking over the General Assembly for the first time in history, the question is does Beyer have the ability to compete with Governor Allen in helping drum up votes for his party's candidates?
The man is affable, perhaps too affable. When Allen, almost certainly deliberately, did not invite him to a lunch at the Governor's Mansion for former British Premier Margaret Thatcher, Beyer was seen in a Capitol lunch room eating a tuna sandwich. And he even seemed to placidly accept Allen's explanation that it had been an oversight.
Could anyone imagine Doug Wilder, when he was lieutenant governor, reacting in such a calm fashion? Wilder was always outspoken, yet Beyer more often than not pulls his punches as if he dislikes the fray.
He will almost surely be his party's nominee for governor, but the opinion here is that he must begin to make more of a public impact as someone with a clear vision of what he wants to do and with the chutzpah to do it if he is to win.
And if he is to do that, he will have to start now, this fall, to show he is capable of energizing voters to keep Democrats in power. Nice guys don't necessarily finish last, as Leo Durocher once said, but they don't necessarily finish first either. MEMO: Mr. Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now aide to 1st District
Rep. Herbert Bateman. Opinions expressed are his own. by CNB