THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507210020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Virginians did not so much re-elect Democrat Chuck Robb to the U.S. Senate last November as they rejected Republican challenger Oliver North. Mr. Robb, whose Boy Scout image was shattered by scandal, would have lost overwhelmingly to any credible Republican candidate unencumbered by the baggage Mr. North hauled into the campaign.
Mr. North was the pick of the fervid core of Republicans now controlling the state GOP. But Mr. North was so unacceptable to many old-line Republicans that they welcomed the opportunity to vote for the third candidate in the race: former state Attorney General Marshall Coleman, who ran as an independent with the conspicuous encouragement and backing of Virginia's senior senator, Republican John Warner.
Thus, Mr. Robb's task was to rally the Democrats' traditional constituencies. Among these were the state's African Americans without whose support the senator surely would lose to Mr. North. But how to get black voters out in force? Only Democrat Doug Wilder, Virginia's first black governor, could rouse them.
Trouble was that Mr. Wilder had earlier entered the senatorial race as an independent candidate against Mr. Robb. Mr. Wilder and Mr. Robb had been stabbing each other for years. Both politicians had been hurt by the feud, Mr. Robb seemingly mortally. Revelations of personal misconduct while governor had also hurt him.
But Mr. Wilder dropped out of the senatorial race and, in its closing days, appealed to black voters to block the North march to Capitol Hill by marching to the polls for Mr. Robb. Blacks' votes determined the election's outcome. If Mr. Robb had lost - as ever seemed likely - Mr. Wilder would have been blamed for a North victory by Democrats in Virginia and on the national stage.
Backing Mr. Robb gained Mr. Wilder the public thanks of the senator and, as is now apparent, gratitude from President Clinton, too - and the aid of both men in retiring the $140,000 in debt Mr. Wilder ran up in pursuit of his party's 1992 presidential nomination and the Senate.
Senator Robb and Lt. Gov. Don Beyer will host a $1,000-a-head fund-raising dinner for Mr. Wilder in McLean. President Clinton will be guest of honor. The Republicans describe the fund-raiser as a payback for Mr. Wilder's weighing in for Mr. Robb - an act they characterize as unprincipled. That's a fair shot. But when was politics different? by CNB