THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504070021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
SOURCE: By JOHN GOOLRICK
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Virginia politics seems to grow more surrealistic with each passing day.
Recently I was at an event where someone running for state Senate as a Republican was having his official kickoff. Most of the people who attended are identified with the so-called Pat Robertson element of the GOP in Virginia, and conspicuous by absence were some of the so-called regular Republicans.
What struck me as strange was that when Jim Miller, former budget director under President Ronald Reagan, showed up, he was greeted by loud and warm applause from the audience.
Less than a year ago, most of these same people had backed Oliver North when he sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and his rival had been Miller, who had the support of most regular Republicans.
Now the regulars are enthusiastically backing Sen. John Warner for re-election in 1996, while many of the social conservatives, who feel strongly that Warner is a traitor to the party, are enthusiastically supporting Miller, who plans to run against Warner in a primary.
So far as I know, Jim Miller is still the Jim Miller of a year ago. His philosophy is both fiscally and socially conservative, making him one of those increasingly rare candidates who on the face of it should be acceptable to both wings of the state party. Once North became the nominee in 1994, Miller campaigned extensively for him while Warner deserted the party nominee and openly campaigned for an independent candidate he had actively recruited to run.
The Warner-Miller situation is a microcosm of the increasingly fractious relation between the two party elements, that could ultimately result in dimming the GOP's steadily rising star in the state.
It isn't hard for me to remember events of a quarter-century ago when state Democrats far to the left of traditionally conservative Democrats who had run the party for eons moved in and took over the apparatus from the statehouse to the courthouse.
Those Democrats, led by George Rawlings Jr., kicked out of leadership any Democrat who dared to dissent from their views. As a result, dozens of elected officials in the party became independent or Republicans, and the party went into a long decline that ended only when it moved back toward the center.
Now Virginia history seems to be about to repeat itself with the social Republicans rapidly picking up strength and in position to take control of the leadership at all levels.
In this process, as was the case with Democrats in the early 1970s, traditional Republicans who concern themselves mainly with economics, criminal justice and decentralization of government issues, are at odds with those Republicans who give priority to such issues as abortion, school prayer, home schooling and the like.
The traditionalists are not only supporting Warner but in some instances are openly supporting Democratic legislative candidates against candidates of their party who owe their nominations to the Robertson wing of the party.
While all this is happening and the two GOP factions do little to come to terms with each other, Democrats watch gleefully, convinced that the intraparty warfare may be their salvation in a state that should be among the most Republican in the nation.
And the Democrats have good reason to be happy. After all, Republicans last year nominated for Senate perhaps the only person in Virginia that incumbent Charles S. Robb could have beaten.
The lesson should be clear: Gaining control of a party means nothing unless those who take it over are able to sell their message to voters in elections at the state and local levels, for Virginia has shown time after time it won't elect narrowly focused candidates whether they come from the left or the right. MEMO: Mr. Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now an aide to 1st
District Rep. Herbert Bateman. Opinions expressed are his own.
by CNB