Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 10, 1990 TAG: 9004100290
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I wouldn't read anything into it," insisted press secretary Laura Dillard.
Virginia Democratic Chairman Paul Goldman, one of Wilder's closest political strategists, said Wilder had been invited by New Hampshire Democrats to speak at a party fund-raising dinner in Sullivan County in early June.
New Hampshire Democrats are especially interested in hearing Wilder talk about how Democrats win in a conservative state such as Virginia, Goldman said, because they're in much the same position.
"They like the governor's message of fiscal restraint," Goldman said. "New Hampshire is the only state without a sales tax and income tax, so that's something Democrats up there need to get into."
Wilder won't be going out of his way to make the New Hampshire appearance, Dillard noted, because he'll already be in the area. He's scheduled to speak at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on June 6.
Nevertheless, Wilder's busy schedule of out-of-state political trips, where his speeches have focused on national themes, has spurred speculation that he may seek the presidency in 1992.
Over the weekend, Wilder was in Los Angeles as the keynote speaker at the state Democratic convention. It was his second trip in less than three weeks to California, which is considering moving its 1992 presidential primary from June to March, just a week or so after New Hampshire's, to give the state more clout.
And there were two other signs over the weekend that Wilder is attracting serious attention: The new issue of Time magazine drops his name as a potential White House contender and Jesse Jackson indirectly attacked him.
In a speech to the National Conference of Black Mayors, Jackson ridiculed two of Wilder's central themes, that the Democrats need to embrace fiscal conservatism and enlarge their coalition.
Wilder advisers were delighted by the criticism because they think it helps elevate Wilder's stature across the country as an alternative to Jackson. Goldman was busy Monday calling reporters with a response that Jackson "is more comfortable in the shallow waters of the new mainstream" while Wilder is wading in the middle.
And Goldman left no doubt that Wilder will have no trouble filling in his schedule with more political trips in the future.
At the recent Democratic National Committee meeting, "people were coming up to me all the time" to invite Wilder to speak in their states, Goldman said. "I've got all kinds of business cards at home."
by CNB