Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993 TAG: 9303210203
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DOLAN (ALMOST) SNAGS IT WORKERS GO HOME; COUNT INCOMPLETE D4 D1 DOLAN DOLAN
Arlington lawyer Bill Dolan came close Saturday to clinching the Democratic nomination for attorney general, routing Bedford County prosecutor Jim Updike in the most lopsided contest in recent years.The only thing that kept Dolan from officially locking up the nomination in the first round of Democratic mass meetings appeared to be the sheer boredom of the state party workers compiling the count in Richmond.
The contest was so out of hand that they simply called it quits and went home early Saturday night rather than wait for late results from Northern Virginia, where Dolan had enough delegates running unopposed to put him over the top.
When the count stopped, Dolan had captured 1,647 delegates - just 104 short of the 1,751 needed to win the nomination. Updike trailed with 176 delegates while another 150 were uncommitted.
Nevertheless, Updike campaign manager Billy Sublett said the race wasn't over yet. He charged there were unspecified irregularities in many localities that would give Updike grounds to challenge at least 546 of Dolan's delegates.
He predicted Updike will rebound with a strong showing Monday night in the second round of mass meetings, most of which are in rural areas where Updike had hoped to do best, and then could file procedural challenges to reopen the mass meetings in other areas. "Is there a scenario by which Updike can win? Sure. You have to win the challenges."
Dolan had a different take. "Frankly, we begin planning for the general election," he said. There are two Republicans seeking their party's nomination, Salem Del. Steve Agee and Henrico County prosecutor Jim Gilmore.
For Virginia Democrats, Saturday's mass meetings to select delegates to the May 7-8 convention in Richmond were a mere formality - and it showed in the sparse turnouts around the state.
Former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry faced only a fringe candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, while Lt. Gov. Don Beyer was unopposed for renomination. The only real contest was for attorney general and it turned out not to be much of one.
Dolan's commanding lead there was a foregone conclusion, because Updike's late-starting campaign had earlier failed to recruit supporters to seek election as convention delegates on his behalf in many of the state's biggest localities.
Dolan had claimed then he had enough prospective delegates running uncontested to win the nomination, a contention Updike's campaign had hotly disputed.
Instead, Saturday's mass meetings - mostly in urban and suburban localities in eastern Virginia where Dolan was strongest - magnified the mismatch between the well-financed, well-connected former head of the State Bar and the self-styled "country prosecutor" from the foothills of the Blue Ridge.
Updike's support was largely confined to his home turf. Three-fourths of his delegates came from Roanoke, Bedford County and Lynchburg. Most of those were a given, because Roanoke was the only place in Updike's back yard where Dolan attempted to contest him Saturday. Even then, the Dolan campaign made only a weak attempt to turn out supporters at the lightly attended mass meeting at William Fleming High School.
The crowd of 98 Roanoke Democrats - dominated by union members and party regulars partial to a local candidate - backed Updike by a 4-1 margin, and gave him all 64 of the city's delegates.
"Geography is one of the more compelling imperatives," explained Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, as he stuck an Updike sticker to his lapel. "He's one of our own at a time when we seem to be falling out of the loop," said another Updike supporter, health products salesman Billy Bova.
However, it was clear by the lackluster tone of the meeting that many Democrats had their minds - if not their bodies - elsewhere. This was one time when a lot of voters really did go fishing. "It takes a good Democrat to miss the first day of trout season," said C.W. Toney, a union leader in Roanoke who was working for Updike. "This is the first one I've missed since I was 6 years old."
Despite Updike's strong showing in the Roanoke-Lynchburg area, he couldn't expand his regional pull into other parts of Western Virginia. In Montgomery County, Dolan took 23 delegates to Updike's 12. In another sign of the organizational mismatch, a Dolan supporter worked the meeting handing out literature; no one was there campaigning on Updike's behalf.
Elsewhere, Updike managed to pick up only a handful of delegates, as Dolan ran strong in the cities and suburbs of eastern Virginia, where elections - and nominations - are increasingly decided:
In Tidewater, Dolan shut out Updike in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk, and took all but a handful of the delegates in Virginia Beach and Newport News.
Around the state's capital, Dolan shut out Updike in Richmond and Chesterfield County. However, Updike made his strongest showing outside Western Virginia in Henrico County, where he took 23 delegates to Dolan's 55.
And in Northern Virginia, which Updike had conceded from the start, Dolan appeared on the verge of shutting out Updike in every locality.
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed some information for this story.
Keywords:
POLITICS