THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605090203
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SERIES: Decision '96
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 177 lines
IT SEEMED LIKE 1984 all over again. Two minutes after Dr. James W. Holley III got word Tuesday evening that he had won the race for mayor, he began to talk about his ``Portsmouth family'' and ``the renaissance of the city.''
The star was the same even if the supporting cast was different.
Always ebullient when he's on stage, Holley turned on his personality Tuesday night to raise some ``amens'' and ``right ons'' among the small group of supporters crowded into his headquarters in a building owned by Maury Cooke Jr. on Airline Boulevard. Cooke is a local businessman who formed the non-profit Portsmouth Community Development Corp., which is working on affordable housing projects in the city.
Holley gloated a little in his early remarks.
``My great grandfather, Portsmouth High Constable Jim Riddick, told me that sometimes the bear eats you and sometimes you eat the bear. The meal of this bear is finished.''
Actually, Mayor Gloria Webb did not seem to feel chewed up.
``I feel good,'' she said Wednesday, the day after her defeat. Her voice reflected her words. ``I'm relieved. I think my family and friends took it harder than I did. It wasn't a real shock to me.''
Webb, who went shopping with her visiting daughter Wednesday morning, was not backing off her City Hall duties, however.
``I have a meeting, and then I'll be at my office,'' she said. ``When I was there yesterday, my basket was piled high.''
After July 1, she said, she intends to play tennis four times a week.
``I found myself thinking this morning about a time with no more television, no more phone calls. I think I'll be truly retired July 1.''
Holley and Webb served together on City Council before Holley was recalled from office in 1987 and she was named to fill his term.
Asked by a television reporter Tuesday if he had heard from Webb early in the evening, Holley replied: ``No, but I will.''
Shortly afterward, Webb walked in the door to wish Holley well and offer to help him in any way she could.
``I'm not a sore loser,'' she said Wednesday. ``This is politics.''
James Holley knows about the ins and outs of politics.
He lost his first bid for City Council in 1966 by 32 votes. Two years later, he and Raymond Turner became the first African Americans elected to Portsmouth's council since 1895. He was re-elected to the council in 1972 and 1976.
In 1980 he ran for mayor, losing to retired Coast Guard Rear Adm. Julian E. ``Joe'' Johansen by 893 votes.
Holley came back strong two years later. Leading the field of City Council candidates, he received 11,451 votes of 21,287 cast, about 2,000 more than Vice Mayor Ben Beamer and 3,000 more than Bob Gray. Holley's lead over Beamer, also white, was piled up in mostly white precincts.
He gave up his council seat to enter the race for mayor in 1984, out-polling former Mayor Jack Barnes and Frank Harte, a third candidate in this year's race.
Holley's appeal has to be widespread, of course. And, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows - as evidenced by the scene of his victory celebration Tuesday evening. It was not Holley's first choice. He wanted to be at the American Legion building on Peach Street with other black candidates Lee E. King and incumbent councilman Bernard D. Griffin Sr., who was re-elected.
Staying in Midtown until the returns were in was a concession to some of Holley's more conservative white supporters, who did not cotton to the notion of seeming to support any other candidates, according to M.H. ``Hank'' Morris, a staunch Holley backer who heads the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Former City Treasurer Charles Whitehurst said the group of backers did not want to create a perception that any deals were made with any other black candidates.
``We are going to the American Legion to party,'' Holley said Tuesday night, ``but we wanted you who had worked so hard to be with me at this time.''
A dozen years ago, a coalition of black groups that had come together to support Holley with some white supporters staged an upscale victory celebration at the Elks Lodge. Few of those people were in the party this week.
That was not a problem for Holley, who is a consummate cheer leader.
But he took note of the change in faces.
``We put together a new committee this time so nobody on it would be mad at somebody else,'' he said.
Regina Black-Thorne, a former city employee, was Holley's campaign chairman.
Some of Holley's campaigners still work for the city. They were described by one City Hall employee as ``the disgruntled bunch around here.''
Nobody at Holley's place was disgruntled Tuesday night.
``This is a most historic occasion for Portsmouth and its people,'' Holley said. ``We have taken the government back and brought it to the people.''
The rain on election day was God talking to the workers, the mayor-elect said.
``What you have to understand is that the good Lord wanted you to be challenged. Now you are receiving showers of blessings.''
Warming to the topic, Holley went on: ``We started a long time ago to rebuild this inner city. Now it is ours again.''
Still, he kept returning to his long-time theme of unity in the city.
Calling for coalitions of black and white, rich and poor, young and old, he said, ``People working together is the best thing for any city.''
Noting that he will not be mayor until July 1, Holley said there is ``time to come together as a family.''
The first time he was elected mayor, Holley waited until the returns were in to make an appearance. This time he was on hand early in the evening, shedding the coat of his elegantly tailored dark suit to appear in his white shirt sleeves for television interviews.
The returns coming by telephone to Holley's office ran late - behind the sophisticated computer operation at Councilman Cameron Pitts' headquarters down the street.
About 10 minutes before Holley's folks had the final numbers, Vice Mayor Johnny Clemons came bounding through the front door with news that Holley was mayor. ``Hank'' Morris had arrived shortly before, predicting Holley's win based on what he had seen coming into the Pitts computer.
But Holley was not rushing into anything. He waited to see the numbers on the board before he started to celebrate. He posed for a picture with Morris, autographed a T-shirt before he started talking to the crowd and hugged a couple of supporters, including former city Treasurer Charles Whitehurst, who had been among Holley's detractors at one time.
Holley's daughter, Robin, was at her dad's side when the news broke. Now 30 and an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Portsmouth, she was a late arrival at his last victory party, in 1984; she was at a debutante practice when her father was proclaimed the first African American mayor in South Hampton Roads.
A little more than three years later, he became the first mayor ever recalled in the commonwealth.
But the ever-optimistic Holley didn't give up, even though he lost elections for state office. He continued to drive around with his famous license tag, HIZONOR.
On the campaign trail recently, he blamed the present administration for city ills and sometimes seemed to take a dim view of the Vision 2005 economic development plan, one the the most energetic projects undertaken under Webb's administration. The plan started with the Downtown and Midtown areas of the city.
Holley said Tuesday night that he would support ``some expanded version'' of the plan, which already is being expanded with the notion of eventually including the entire city.
``I hope the new administration will continue with what we started,'' Webb said Wednesday. ``My concern is the plan and the momentum because it is what the city must do.''
Asked by a television reporter about the increased emphasis on museums and festivals Downtown, Holley said, ``We don't have enough festivals. Festivals bring people together, and that is important. I think, too, that we need to exploit our history to attract more tourists to our city.''
Holley and Webb both take a lukewarm stance on riverboat gambling in Portsmouth, a position that jibes with the opposition of many black leaders. Webb's vote against a proposal that involved a potential investor may have cost her some votes. Holley said Tuesday night that riverboat gambling is ``not a high priority in my program.''
What does appear high on Holley's priorities is the re-establishment of his image as a broad-based mayor.
He set the stage by giving an avuncular talk to his supporters: ``Promise me this: Promise me that we will not be mad at anybody because we won.
`` . . . Others, in a sense, would like to join us, and we will welcome them.
``I can work with anyone.''
In 1987, when Holley held a news conference to answer questions about his ouster in the recall election, he was as upbeat as he was this week.
At the time, he was quoted as saying, ``We're on stage and we're off stage. We have our entrances and our exits. This happens to be one of my exits.''
Tuesday night he made a new entrance, delivering his lines in just the same style he always has. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON
Portsmouth's newly elected mayor, James W. Holley III, left, is
congratulated by volunteer Kendrick Turner.
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Political allies face differing futures. Incumbent Mayor Gloria Webb
lost as did James C. Hawks beside her. J. Thomas Benn III, left, won
in what he described as a bittersweet victory.
KEYWORDS: ELECTION PORTSMOUTH PORTSMOUTH MAYOR'S RACE
RESULTS by CNB