THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300709
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: 98 lines
Virginia Democrats leave their party's national convention today and return to the home-turf campaigns waxing nostalgic for an unlikely hero.
He was a Southerner, sympathetic to the average Virginian. Democrats saw his opponent as an extremist, giving them reason to support their party's candidate.
Virginia Democrats are summoning those memories of Lyndon B. Johnson mostly because he is their great presidential prize - the last Democrat to run for president and win in Virginia.
There's a chance Bill Clinton could be the next.
``There was a fear factor when Johnson won in 1964, and if we do our job, fear will be a factor again in November,'' said Frank Hall, a Democratic delegate from Virginia. ``Winning was not always realistic for us before. This time, I think everyone believes it is.''
Bill Clinton trails Bob Dole in Virginia by most measures, but the numbers are tight enough to raise eyebrows in a state generally considered an easy haul for the GOP.
Pollsters expect Dole's lead to grow. With its rural roots and stable economy, Virginia has grown unflinchingly conservative and receptive to the Republican point of view. And early polls are notoriously fickle. The Democratic Party's national chairman noted Thursday that Michael Dukakis left the 1988 convention with a 17-point lead over George Bush.
But Clinton's tight margins in a conservative state have intrigued national Democratic Party officials, who are considering a cash infusion to bolster the state's Clinton campaign. That would pump fresh blood into Virginia Democrats, seen after convention sessions this week scouring the floor for discarded placards to send home.
One official in the Democratic National Committee said that while Virginia isn't considered a battleground, neither is it on the party's list of lost causes - where it has been for decades. If Clinton strategists target Virginia, the state could get its biggest helping of presidential politics in recent memory.
``I don't think Virginia is ruled out at this point; I think Virginia is very much in play,'' Democratic Party National Chairman Donald L. Fowler said Thursday morning.
Said Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Sue Wrenn: ``No one is giving up on Bill Clinton back home.''
Clinton's relative hopes in Virginia mark no grand ideological shift for the state. Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research pollster Brad Coker noted that Bob Dole leads in only a handful of states around the country - and Virginia is one of them. His recent poll gave Dole a 2-point lead in Virginia.
Rather, most suspect the president's moderate tendencies - Republicans accuse Clinton of imitating a Republican - to win points.
Asked in Chicago to assess the Clinton presidency, Virginia delegates mostly hailed his actions against the Republican Congress and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Buoyed when Republicans fell short of winning control of the General Assembly last year, Democrats have been laying their own claim to Virginia conservativism. None questioned that Virginia is essentially a conservative state, only that there are limits to how far Virginians think conservative principles should carry them. The Democratic Party's national strategy - one hammered on Virginia delegates repeatedly this week - is that Dole's tax cuts and Gingrich's Contract With America go too far.
``You can have a pattern of being reasonable about both helping people and expecting people to take care of themselves,'' said Nancy Rodrigues, a delegate from Surry. ``Bill Clinton doesn't pretend he can fix everything, but he tries to help anywhere he can.''
The distinction is difficult to pinpoint. Democratic Party officials released a chart this week detailing specifically what they say Clinton has accomplished for Virginia. The list includes a one-point drop in unemployment, 720 new police officers, expanded tax credits for 333,000 families and unpaid child-birth leave for 1 million workers.
But most of the listed accomplishments could be attributed to Congress as well. And some, such as an increase in the number of private-sector jobs and growth in construction and manufacturing industries, have long been touted as products of state government, not the president.
``Virginia is basically a conservative state. The majority of people vote Republican because they agree with the limited-government values that our party espouses,'' said Don Duncan, Republican chairman for Virginia's 6th congressional district. ``I don't think after all these years that's going to change.''
Democrats, of course, disagree.
``I think we're going to take Virginia, I really do,'' said Mame Reily, a Democratic delegate from Alexandria. ``Virginians like to make history.'' MEMO: Staff writer Warren Fiske contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Not since it went all the way with LBJ has Virginia gone with a
Democrat for president.
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Virginians have more than placards to bring home after the
convention - hope that Clinton will carry the state. Cheering that
hope Thursday night were 3rd District Rep. Bobby Scott, second from
left, State Sen. Yvonne Miller of Norfolk, center, and State Sen. L.
Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, second from right.
KEYWORDS: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 CHICAGO
VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY by CNB