Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 25, 1993 TAG: 9310250045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was 1977, and the Old Dominion was headed back into the Democratic fold. Republicans had won two governor's races in a row, but a Southern Democrat was in the White House, and the party had a can't-lose man for the statehouse.
He had one of those great Virginia names, Andrew Pickens Miller. He had all the money behind him, all the party establishment and all the experience. Miller, you see, had twice been elected attorney general and had used the office to build a record and cozy up to every big businessman in sight.
He had just one thorny little problem: Henry Howell. Howlin' Henry, as some called him, was ANALYSIS running a third time for governor against Miller in the primary. Henry knew how to give 'em hell on the stump. "Every year like clockwork," he would say, "the big boys come down to Main Street looking for a handout. And every year like police work, Henry is there to blow the whistle."
Henry had a great campaign theme song, "The Howell Cannonball" with lyrics adapted from "The Wabash Cannonball":
Now listen to ol' Henry,
his rumble and his roar.
As he travels o'er the mountains,
down the hills and to the shore.
See the mighty rush of the people,
hear the lonesome big boys squall.
We're on our way to Richmond
on the Howell Cannonball.
Of course, everybody knew Henry had no chance. He had no money to speak of, and no support outside the union members and liberals who bought into Henry's old Southern populism. Those folks kept quiet the year before when Jimmy Carter ran his conservative-style campaign for president; everybody knew they'd come back to Andy once the primary was over. The Richmond Times-Dispatch didn't even take a fresh picture of Henry for the morning after the primary.
So Andy paid Henry no mind. In fact, he mocked Henry's theme song, riding a steam locomotive across central Virginia a few days before the primary.
And he lost. It was about as big a political upset as anyone could remember and led to an easy win for the Republicans in November.
The similarities between 1977 and '93 have been ringing in the head of Tom Morris, president of Emory & Henry College and a scholar of Virginia politics.
Terry: the presumptive favorite, darling of Virginia's big businesses, two-time attorney general. She's waited her turn, just like Miller. She's from Southwest Virginia; he had built a political base there as a young lawyer.
Democrats have Bill Clinton, a moderate Southern governor, in the White House (note that neither Carter nor Clinton carried the state). Terry even chartered a train last week for a whistlestop tour from Roanoke to Alexandria.
And, if recent polls are right, Terry is about to wind up on the short end of the biggest upset since Miller lost to Howell. She's dropped from a 29-percentage-point lead over Republican George Allen in June to trail him by seven points in a poll last week.
Of course, there are differences. Terry's opponent isn't a liberal Democratic populist but a conservative Republican one. She also got the bad news that her campaign is in trouble early enough to react. Terry went on the attack against Allen 10 days ago.
Consider this variation on the 1977 campaign a gift to both candidates and to the voters.
Allen, once given no chance, has run his own cannonball campaign to pull ahead. He's battle-tested. Now, he has an opportunity to show a little depth and substance as the front-runner.
Terry, on the other hand, has never been in a contest where she was behind. She led the ticket for all three statewide offices both times she was elected attorney general.
Women candidates have difficulty convincing voters they're tough enough, pollsters say. How better for Terry to prove herself than by fighting back?
Voters have the best seat in the house to watch whether Allen can put this election away or whether Terry has the stuff to pull it out.
Rob Eure covers politics from this newspaper's bureau in Richmond.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB