Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 18, 1993 TAG: 9303180544
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
TERRY WILL BE A FORMIDABLE FOE
THE MORNING line favors Terry 8-5. Mary Sue Terry, that is, the state's two-term attorney general, recently resigned to devote her full energies to the task of succeeding Gov. Douglas Wilder in the November election. Her path now clear to the Democratic nomination, she is salting away hundreds of thousands of dollars to dump into autumnal media.As recently as Christmas, the Democrats looked ready to self-destruct. Terry had blown a small whistle on shenanigans at the Virginia Retirement System and Wilder was trying to fire her from the job of representing the VRS. But the attorney general went to court and found a friendly judge to block the governor's ploy.
This marked the first time in Wilder's career that a fellow Democrat had stared him down, and he threatened loudly to withhold his support from her gubernatorial bid. At the prospect of protracted internecine warfare, Democrats quaked in horror while Republicans tried to mask their glee.
But just as the die seemed cast, Wilder turned away from pursuing his vendetta against Terry to shore up his own sagging political fortunes - preparatory to challenging the embattled incumbent for the Democratic nomination for Charles Robb's U.S. Senate seat. That changed the political landscape overnight, and who should show up at Terry's kickoff but her old friend Doug, saying neither more nor less than the situation required.
Terry has already carried every congressional district in her two previous races for attorney general. Don Beyer will be looking to repeat as lieutenant governor. They will be joined by Bill Dolan, who is making his first political race as a candidate for attorney general.
If Beyer isn't yet a household name, he has worked steadily to identify himself with Clintonite, feel-good issues and has made no significant mistakes.
Few people know much about Dolan, but those who do praise the Northern Virginia lawyer as competent and hard-working. In easily upending Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney James Updike in a quiet contest to round up delegates for the Democratic nominating convention, Dolan has lived up to his reputation as a man who should be taken seriously.
So, with Terry, Beyer and Dolan, Democrats start in good shape. They see bedrock support in the range of 40-42 percent of the electorate and know how easily they've added to that in the elections of 1981, 1985 and 1989 - winning comfortable majorities in every race for the state's top three offices except Wilder's squeaker in '89.
They figure it this way: Start by making a few soothing noises to pacify the Democrats' core constituencies - blacks, labor, feminists - and then reach out to swing voters in the suburbs by describing the joys of progressive ideas that require no tax increases.
Bankrolling the campaign show from business contributions is no major problem so long as the polling data look good. Just examine what happened last year when Clinton's numbers turned upward. When it comes to politics, business leaders today ask only one question: "Who's going to win?"
Circumspection has been the hallmark of Terry's political career since she arrived in the House of Delegates in 1978 under the wing of the late A.L. Philpott, then majority leader and soon to be speaker. She even shared a three-member House district with Philpott that took in a wide swath of the old Southside base of the legendary Byrd machine. There was no better place to absorb the great maxim of Virginia politics: "No matter who's in office, conservatives are always in power."
In the beginning, Terry mirrored Philpott's conservative views on virtually all issues, even opposing ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. While she reversed polarity on the ERA just as the issue was sliding off the table, and as attorney general had some mild skirmishes with business, Terry has been faithful to the political persona she brought with her to the House.
Terry's political consistency was front and center when she formally launched her campaign for governor. There were the obligatory law-and-order sidelights, such as proposing to take away the driver's license of any teen-ager caught bringing a weapon to school (wow!), and much talk of economic development. (What else is new?) But the real meat was contained in pledges to follow Wilder in holding the line on new taxes and going him one better by saying she would institute a long-overdue "performance audit" of every agency of state government to get "more for less."
In sum, a business Democrat who will be tough on crime but not really hostile to her party's social agenda. As a professional woman who has already succeeded in an arena long dominated by men, she stood as the embodiment of the feminist ideal and had no need to embellish the point.
Most who come to the legislature never count for much - in it or outside. Others take time to develop, but Terry was seen as a "comer" from her first days. When off-duty she could be charming, even jocular, but the phrase that best summed up her early days stuck, and that was extreme seriousness of purpose.
During 15 years in Virginia politics, Terry has always made sure of her ground, avoided unnecessary risks and refused to scatter her shots. But when she had to take the biggest risk of all and beard Wilder, her courage was impressive. Republicans had best choose wisely.
\ AUTHOR Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
Keywords:
POLITICS