
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 11, 1991                   TAG: 9103110302
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

2-PARTY SYSTEM

THE VIRGINIA GOP has looked so peaked for so long that word of 160 Republicans gathering the other day in Richmond initially raised concern that it might be for the funeral.

Not so. In fact, the gathering was a sign the party may be on the road to recovery. That would be welcome news to those who believe a strong, competitive two-party political system helps ensure effective government.

State Chairman Don Huffman of Roanoke and Republican apologists at GOP headquarters and on the state central committee weren't there. Neither were elected Republican officials and their staffs. They were not invited to the meeting - sponsored by Richmond financier Lawrence Lewis Jr., a long-time Republican benefactor - precisely because so many of them are perceived to be part of the problem.

Instead, Lewis gathered mostly young business and professional folks who are frustrated with the party's rightward drift, its internal battles, its financial woes and its decade-long string of defeats in statewide elections.

A conspiracy to wrench control from current leaders? Ultimately, that could be the result. But Lewis and others say the immediate purpose was to begin rebuilding the state GOP from the bottom up. The meeting was inspired, Lewis says, by questions from his children, grandchildren and their friends as to why the party has become so woebegone.

Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia guru of political science, was invited to speak about the history of state politics. "The No. 1 objective [of the meeting] was to revivify the Republican Party," he reported, "to revivify the two-party system." Sabato described the crowd as "the Republican party of the future"; "the one that's in office now," he added, "has had its day."

Maybe the Lewis gathering was no more than a transitory blip on the political radar screen. But 160 people, mostly holders of neither party nor public office, apparently cared enough about the GOP and the two-party system in Virginia to spend a Saturday afternoon talking about them. Almost as many sent regrets but asked Lewis to keep them on his mailing list.

If a new generation of Republicans, more moderate and progressive, take an active role in party affairs, who knows? The Virginia GOP may become again the effective challenger to Democratic domination that it was in the '70s.

by CNB