DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711090061

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY AND HOLLY A. HEYSER, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:  132 lines

AFTER LOSS, DEMOCRATS TAKE STOCK PARTY NEEDS A MESSAGE, LEADERS AGREE

It still feels like the morning after for Virginia's Democrats.

The election's aftermath has been a time for blame and regret, accusations and recriminations. It's been a time to take stock, get a clue, get new candidates. And maybe even a message.

``If this was Japan, the (state) Democratic committee would be offering their resignation,'' said longtime political strategist and former state party chairman Paul Goldman. ``They'd be ashamed. They'd be falling on their swords.''

But this is Virginia. And for two runs in a row now, the state's Democratic gubernatorial candidates have lost to GOP opponents promoting simple slogans. No Parole. Truth in Sentencing. No Car Tax.

Simplistic, perhaps, but arguably effective. And even though political pundits decry the state of affairs that requires candidates to have a message short enough to fit on a bumper sticker, they acknowledge that the Democrats sure could use one.

There is consensus - among pundits and politicos at least - about what went wrong with Donald S. Beyer Jr.'s bid for the governorship.

He responded badly to the car-tax cut proposed by James S. Gilmore III - first by denouncing it, then by imitating it. In doing so, say strategists, Beyer demonstrated his own lack of decisiveness, defined his campaign as reactive, showed he had no ideas of his own and - worst of all from a Democratic point of view - helped Gilmore focus on the tax cut as the central issue of the election.

Any hope Beyer had of defining his own message was dead as soon as he countered Gilmore's car tax cut with a similar plan of his own, according to U.S. Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, a Democrat who represents the sprawling 3rd District.

``This election got embroiled in a bidding war on the car tax,'' Scott said. ``When Beyer proposed (his alternative), this became the issue. That became the entire discussion. It was the only issue. There was never any debate over any other issues.''

Beyer's defenders contend that he did have a message - a message involving education and the environment - but that it was too complex to fit on a bumper sticker.

Maybe so, said Virginia Beach Democratic political avatar Ken Geroe. But Beyer might have helped himself by being more like Gilmore in terms of focusing on one idea, but less like Gilmore in general.

In other words: He could have offered voters more of a contrast.

``You could have asked Jim Gilmore during this campaign, `Who do you think will win the World Series?' And he would have said, `No car tax,' '' Geroe said.

``Hindsight's perfect. But if (Beyer) had stuck to his original position on the car tax. If he had said, `Fine, Gilmore's for this, but I'm not,' he could have at least distinguished himself from the guy.''

Simply not being a Republican, Geroe said, is not enough of a distinction.

In such soul-searching, say Virginia political observers, the elements of what it will take to fix the party becomes clear.

The first thing Democrats must do, according to Josh Darden, a Norfolk businessman and Democratic fund-raiser, is to swallow their pride and pass Gilmore's proposed car tax cut when it comes up during next year's General Assembly.

``Democrats facing election in two years have to decide whether this is a mandate for the car-tax cut. The best thing to do, if you feel it's what the citizens want, is not to oppose it,'' Darden said.

University of Virginia political scientist and commentator Larry Sabato couldn't agree more.

``They should be preparing to pass it and get it off the agenda,'' he said.

``If they fight it and defeat it, they'll pay the price in 1999. (If they dispense with it quickly), then maybe they can help set the agenda, and maybe some of the issues on the table can be Democratic issues.''

The second thing Democrats should do, at least according to strategist Goldman, is change the way they choose their candidates for statewide office. Specifically, he said, they should go back to having primaries.

Since 1981, Virginia's Democrats have eschewed primaries, relying instead on what some call an ``anointment process,'' in which state committee members choose the highest-ranking party loyalist considered to be next in line.

As examples, Goldman pointed to former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who ran against George F. Allen for governor in 1993, and Beyer.

``The truth of the matter is, Terry and Beyer are the products of a flawed process,'' Goldman said.

``We have a nomination process which is devoid of ideas, devoid of competition and devoid of any kind of connection with the public.

``It's controlled by a handful of elites who only care about holding onto their own power. It's a seniority program. Based on whoever's next in line.''

``If a guy gets to July and doesn't know what his message is, then the process that nominated him is flawed and failed and has to be changed,'' Goldman said of Beyer.

``The Democrats need a process that will force its candidates to come up with ideas. Abortion with Wilder, that was an idea. No parole with Allen, it was an idea. The car tax was an idea. Ideas get you elected. The evidence is clear. Ideas move people. And the Democrats don't have any good ones.''

Goldman plans to form a committee to revive the party, its structure and public image.

Key ideas to be explored, he said, will include pushing the legislature to select judges based on merit, not politics; forbidding legislators to practice law in front of boards and commissions whose salaries they set; changing the state's Constitution to allow governors to serve two terms; reforming campaign finance; identifying the party affiliation of candidates on the ballot; and holding down college tuition costs.

Last but not least, experts say, the Democrats need to find a way to make themselves relevant to voters again.

This year's low voter turnout is an abysmal, embarrassing showing, said Mark Warner, a Northern Virginia cellular telephone magnate who lost narrowly to incumbent John Warner in his bid for Warner's U.S. Senate seat last year. Just under half of the state's registered voters cast ballots.

Warner, young, independently wealthy and boundlessly energetic, is widely viewed as one of the party's great hopes for the future.

``Just as the rest of the world is embracing democracy, we're at the bottom of the scale worldwide in terms of voter participation,'' he said.

``We need to talk about something that affects people's lives,'' said Warner.

``I disagree with Gilmore's (car-tax cut) solution, but I give him credit for talking about something that directly affects people's lives. If I'm going to stay involved, that's what I'm going to be doing.''

It may take time, said Sabato, but Virginia's Democrats will rally. It's all part of the natural cycle of politics.

``The governing party, after a while, decays and invites challenge,'' he said.

``The Democrats have been in control for 100 years, and that's a long time. The Democrats will be better off for having a period out of power.''

``In a way, they would have been better off losing total control. . . . Then the Republicans would have had total control and there would have been no one (else) to blame anything on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot file

Donald S. Beyer Jr., shown here during his concession speech,

allowed his opponent to set the agenda for the campaign, strategists

say. KEYWORDS: ELECTION VIRGINIA RESULTS ANALYSIS

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