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Virginia entered the last year of an era Monday afternoon when U. S. Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Jr. announced in Richmond that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 1982. With that announcement. Sen. Byrd ended one of the longest family monopolies on Capitol Hill. Since March 4, 1933, Virginia has had a member of the Byrd family representing her in the United States Senate. Come January 1983, that nearly half century of service will end.
However, it would be foolish for anyone to predict that Sen. Byrd s retirement will mark the end of the family’s influence in Virginia politics.
Those roots were deeply planted by Sen. Byrd’s father, Harry Flood Byrd Sr., who during his tenure as a Democrat in the Virginia Senate, the Governor’s mansion and his 32 years as United States Senator shaped Virginia’s government and political philosophy. The key message preached by the senior Byrd and carried forth by his son was one of fiscal responsibility.
Harry Byrd Sr. first came to statewide prominence in 1923 when as a state senator he successfully led the fight against a $50 million bond issue for roads. He traveled the Commonwealth relentlessly preaching his Pay-as-you-go philosophy. Two years later he was elected governor of Virginia, giving birth to the successful Byrd Democratic political machine. As governor, he streamlined the Virginia Constitution with 80 amendments and placed the responsibility of the state’s progress more directly in the hands of the governor’s office. _ ^
He pushed through a tough antilynching law. He cajoled the state into taking over all roads and made the roads commission responsible for their improvement and upkeep. And he changed a $1.9 million budget deficit into a $3.7 million surplus.
In 1933, he was appointed to the U. S. Senate, where he preached his philosophy of fiscal integrity until his retirement in 1965. There was no question as to whom the next senator from Virginia would be. The senator’s son had by that time spent 18 years in the Virginia Senate. Harry Byrd Jr. was appointed to fill his father’s unexpired term on Nov. 12, 1965. At the time of his appointment. Sen. Byrd Jr. said in a newspaper interview, "I think of myself as a forward-looking conservative. I have a basic philosophy and in the framework of this philosophy, I believe every businessman and every legislator must look ahead. We must be prepared to change as the situation changes. Times and conditions and opportunities change—and you must change with them. No one can stand still. But the arithmetic table does not change. Sooner or later this country must face
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