THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606010215
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Profile
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 121 lines
It was just after his first year of law school, Randy Forbes remembers. Summer was near, grades were good and life in general was proceeding according to plan. It was time to relax, he figured. Time to meet a girl.
So Forbes did what any budding jurist and introspective suitor would do: He broke out a legal pad and made a list of 10 acceptable prospects. ``Good girls, not any crazy ones,'' he said. Then he lined up some dates and waited for fate to strike.
``Lawyers do things like that,'' said the 44-year-old Chesapeake attorney, now a husband, father and four-term state delegate. ``You always want to know your options.''
Twenty years later, Forbes is no less focused, although this year more than his family life is at stake. The Chesapeake Republican is being tapped for a type of matchmaking that could determine Virginia's representation in the U.S. Senate and who becomes the state's next governor and attorney general.
Forbes is expected to be installed today as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, during the state GOP's annual convention in Salem. Barring some unforeseen opposition, he will replace Richmond lawyer Patrick McSweeney, who is leaving after four years as a dogged, often controversial party leader.
It is hardly a silk purse Forbes will inherit. The Republican Party is several hundred thousand dollars in debt, and is split by a bitter debate over the loyalty of its incumbent U.S. senator, John Warner. As chairman, Forbes will be called on not only to straighten out the party's finances, but also to bridge the rift between its conservative and moderate factions.
Forbes' political reputation is one of conciliator - partly why his nomination is not expected to spark ideological furor, as McSweeney's did four years ago. But even the cheeriest of Republicans admit that the job is an onerous one, and that matters like abortion and school prayer might never yield a unified position. Forbes knows it, too.
``If you took a legal pad and put down on paper ideas about the Republican Party, you'd have to say that no, this isn't the greatest time to be chairman,'' Forbes said in an interview this week. ``Certainly, we'd rather be there when we have a lot of money in the bank and everyone is pulling together and singing the same song.
``But I'm confident enough to believe we can work out these issues. I wouldn't want the job if I wasn't.''
Besides, you can't plan for everything. Like when he met his wife, Shirley, at a school reunion, early that summer when he came home a-courtin'. She wasn't on his list.
Forbes talked this week with The Virginian-Pilot inside his Chesapeake law office, a neatly scrubbed Cape Cod that his father built as the family home a year before he was born. His grandfather used to farm the very dirt beneath it, Forbes is proud to say. ``Chesapeake just kind of grew up around us.''
With a tight part in his hair and the requisite dark suit, Forbes carries the squeaky-clean image of storybook Republican. The stereotypical conservative, Christian, limited-government politician. For every political perplexity he has an analogy to school, church or family.
``My goal,'' he said, when asked why he wants the job, ``is that our children will look at us and say they're not only proud to be Americans and proud to be Virginians, they're also proud to be Republicans.''
That goal also includes Republican victories in this year's U.S. Senate race and the statewide races in 1997, but Forbes mentions that almost as an afterthought. To him, politics is less about winning elections and more about a strong church and family, and building a good life.
``I don't like politics. I really don't,'' he said. ``I love putting on a baseball uniform and going out with my son to coach his baseball team. I love watching my 17-year-old lead his band onto the football field in the fall. I love hugging my little girl when she comes home with a good report card and I see that little twinkle in her eye.
``To me, that's what politics is about. That's why people become Republicans or Democrats and get involved. Because if we don't do the things we do, then there's no way we can pass this torch of liberty onto our children the way it was passed on to us.''
Forbes has the experience. In the House of Delegates, Forbes serves as Republican floor leader, and a flag-carrier for the Allen agenda. Most figure Forbes has designs on a statewide office, though he won't say. The chairmanship can only help.
But party members around the state said they aren't electing his resume, they're electing his pragmatism, his promise that everyone will get equal billing - pro-choicers and hardliners alike. Or at least a fair shake.
Not many prospective chairmen could pull that off. In the philosophical struggle for control of the Republican Party, Forbes has become almost a political anomaly: The right-leaning, pro-life, Christian conservative who still thinks compromising and taking what you can get is better than making no progress at all.
``I think a lot of people have come to realize that you can't influence if you antagonize,'' said Anne Kincaid, a former Allen administration aide who also served as a political organizer for Pat Robertson.
``We tend, so often, to sort of eat our own, and it will be nice to see us get away from that, to not have to always fight those battles against ourselves.''
At least in one sense, Forbes is almost assured some success. He should unify much of the party simply by virtue of who he isn't: He's not Pat McSweeney. When McSweeney was Republican chairman in 1993, he is said to have urged some GOP benefactors not to give money to George F. Allen's then-flailing gubernatorial campaign. Allen, of course, went on to become governor. And McSweeney became persona non grata within the administration.
The whole thing made for some awkward leadership in the Republican Party, with the party chairman and its highest-ranking elected official at odds. Allen even formed his own political committee to help elect Republican legislative candidates, a task typically reserved for party organizers.
``It'll be nice to have a party and a chairman that are helpful and trying to find ways to work with you," Allen said this week. ``I'm not saying they worked against us, but it was like we were on our own.''
Forbes doesn't criticize McSweeney's reign, but he also doesn't criticize much of anything. Except liberals, in general, perhaps. Maybe Bill Clinton in particular. But ask him his priorities as chairman, and he clearly hopes to undo some of the Republican Party's perceived missteps.
He wants to target minority voters for membership, a constituency McSweeney once said wasn't cost-effective to pursue. And he wants to target the motor voter law, which Republicans fought so hard, knowing it would only boost Democratic voting strength? He'll embrace it, and try to use it to expand the GOP.
``I don't plan for anyone to control this party except for Republicans in Virginia,'' Forbes said. ``I don't even plan for me to control this party. This is a party that belongs to Virginians.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Randy Forbes
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE REPUBLIC PARTY CHAIRMAN by CNB