THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610190026
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SERIES: COMMONWEALTH CONVERSATION
One of a series of interviews with Virginia's political leaders
conducted by Pilot editorial Margaret Edds. Kincaid is a former
director of constituent affairs for the Allen administration and a
longtime activist in the right-to-life movement.
LENGTH: 113 lines
What have been the major trends in Virginia politics in the 1990s?
Ronald Reagan in the 1980s set the stage for Virginia Republicans to really begin to politically feel comfortable espousing a conservative message. We began to see the citizenry recognize that these aren't right-wing values. They are mainstream values: to strengthen the family, to foster independence vs. dependence, to look at the abysmal problems that were coming from government being the big daddy.
Where does the message work, and where does it not in Virginia?
It works when the candidate espousing those themes really believes them and has the Reaganesque quality as did George Allen in 1993. . . . It depends on the character and integrity and fortitude of the messenger.
Running through recent elections, why did the GOP lose the governorship in 1989?
That was the failure of the messenger, not the message. And is was so close. To me it was one of the more avoidable losses.
How about 1993, when George Allen won?
I certainly don't want to focus all of this on the issue of abortion, but it played key in his race too. There was a defining moment on legislation federally called FOCA, Freedom of Choice Act. The legislation prohibited states from making their own laws regarding abortion.
Mary Sue (Terry) came out in support of FOCA, and the moment she did, George Allen came out and hit her hard in a press conference, saying that she was extreme and out of step with Virginians by not trusting them to make their own laws. . . . He put her on the defensive on this issue the rest of the campaign, and that is called leadership.
The 1994 Senate race, when Republican Oliver North lost?
Oliver North was way too much of a hot button personality. The main thing that people feared in him was not his policies. He did a beautiful job of articulating Republican conservative themes. But it was a matter of, was this man a liar? . . . It was a lack of trust.
The 1995 legislative races?
We certainly don't call that a failure, because we moved in the right direction. The gauntlet was maybe laid down a little too heavy about how much we were going to move. I think we could have done better if we'd done more to lay the educational problems in Virginia at the feet of the Democrats.
Early on, we should have said, wait a minute. We have poured money, money, money into education, and some of the counties that have the least money have the highest test scores. We should have painted the Democrats as the architects of the failure.
Do you think most Virginians agree with you that the nation is in moral decline?
In the moral climate, . . . you've got both parties admitting to the problems today. The only difference is who has the best solutions.
In the 1950s, prayer and Bible study were legal and practiced in all schools, homosexuality and abortion were illegal, the family was basically intact, our education system was good, and crime, drugs and promiscuity were a minor problem.
Here we are 40 years later as Republicans, as conservative Christians espousing a return to those same things that were taken for granted in the 1950s, and we're being called radicals. . . . Never has the reach of government been greater nor its purse larger, and yet never have the social pathologies been worse and never has the tax burden been worse, so I think people are looking to Republicans to provide a solution.
How does Northern Virginia impact state elections?
Northern Virginia skews Virginia. The whole beltway there, it's like another state, and yet it's within our state. It's made up of a much more liberal base. It's fiscally conservative, but when you talk social issues there, you'll get a knee-jerk response.
Can you win an election while doing poorly in Northern Virginia?
No. Perhaps if you were overwhelming in Hampton Roads, but you're beginning to see Hampton Roads moving to the left of the rest of the state. It's like we have a Southern state with a Yankee crescent. . . . So many people who live in Northern Virginia work in Washington and, therefore, big daddy government is what sustains them.
What do you think of Governor Allen's decision to become less confrontational?
Governor Allen has not changed his message. He's just changed his methods. That comes with maturity, experience. You can't influence if you antagonize. And therefore some of what he was doing in perhaps his zeal, he might have looked antagonistic doing it.
Given the fact that he was taking on the big boys who were holding on for dear life to their power and abusing it mightily, I don't blame Governor Allen. . . . The beautiful thing George Allen did is what Ronald Reagan did. He built a coalition.
What is the relationship of the Religious Right to the rest of the Republican Party?
It's getting better all the time. There's a very cooperative union now. The old line ranks . . . have come to appreciate the strength of the conservative Christians in Virginia, the dedication, the commitment to staying in there and being hard workers.
What about the party split in the 1994 Senate race when some moderate Republicans joined U.S. Sen. John Warner in refusing to back the GOP nominee?
There was finger-pointing all over the place, but I don't think it was long-lived. It was hard to know how much (infighting) was really there, and how much was fueled by the media.
But the split between John Warner and Jim Miller in this spring's Senate primary wasn't a fabrication, was it?
Of course not. But I don't see Warner's election by any means as a repudiation of the Christian Right. Look at the very fact that Warner was on the radio talking about his conservative record and his 100 percent voting record on the Christian Coalition's scale. If that doesn't show the power of Christian conservatives to take somebody who's been known as a moderate all this time and move him - that's called clout. MEMO: These interviews by Margaret Edds were conducted for a book about
Southern politics in the 1990s. The Virginia chapter is being written by
Dr. Thomas Morris, president of Emory & Henry College, and Ms. Edds. ILLUSTRATION: [Photo of Anne Kincaid] by CNB