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Howell Lacked Orthodoxy What disturbed the voters about Howell as much as his liberalism was his lack of Virginia political orthodoxy. That lack included not only his political views which, by the way, were not all that unorthodox, but also his style, his speech and his lack of reverence for the financial and business establishment in the state. In the Republican campaign rhetoric, all this was lumped together as “liberalism” but mainly it was a lack of orthodoxy, and all the threepiece suits in the world couldn’t make Howell orthodox.
In Dalton, the voters clearly opted for the more conservative of the two candidates as well as for the more orthodox. But they also elected a governor who stands, also if only by a few inches, to the left of outgoing Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr.
Oddly, the roles of the parties in the statewide contests were incidental if they played any role at all. All six of the candidates ran more or less independent races, although the Democrats made a feature toward a joint campaign by appointing Eighth District Congressman Herbert Harris as coordinator of the “Rainbow" ticket.
There were moments of coordination aid frequent words of mutual support among the members of the two tickets, but to what extent the final choice of the voters was determined by party labels is a moot question. Most observers feel the elections were decided by the vast army of independent voters who cast their ballots on the basis of their likes dislikes about individual candidates and could not care less about the party label attached to them.
All things being equal, the Democratic label is still a political plus in the state. But things are seldom equal, hence party affiliation is just one of the factors the voters consider in making their decision. »
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