DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230030

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   32 lines

WILDER'S NONENDORSEMENT NOT NEUTRALITY

L. Douglas Wilder will be sitting out the race for governor. Both Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. and Republican James S. Gilmore III would handle the job well, says the former governor turned professor and radio talk-show host.

He never wished to be a kingmaker, Wilder adds.

Since when? Anyone who has followed Wilder's long and mercurial career knows that he has, on any number of occasions, dictated the Democratic Party's course by his threats and demands.

And anyone who follows politics knows also that Wilder has, in effect, just endorsed Gilmore. Gilmore is a Republican; Wilder, presumably, a Democrat. It's not a neutral act to fail to endorse your party's nominee.

Unfortunately, no message that might reshape the Democratic Party in some positive direction accompanies Wilder's slight. Instead we are left sharing the view of Avon Drake, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist, who said recently: Wilder practices the politics of ``extreme self-centeredness.''

Minus any rationale to the contrary, we must assume that Wilder has assessed the likely outcome on Nov. 4 and determined that his future is best served by giving the Republicans a boost.

The only way that doesn't work is if Beyer wins.

So while Republicans are celebrating their coup, Democrats might take Wilder's abandonment as a rallying cry. If Beyer wins, they won't have to deal with him again.

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