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By GEORGE BOWLES
Democrat Special Writer
Republican politicans in the state are quietly using a new and potentially effective weapon against their Democratic opposition in this year’s elections.
That weapon is the word being given wide circulation in conservative circles that black state Sen. Douglas Wilder of Richmond is now calling the shots in the Democratic party.
Indeed, so great is Sen. Wilder’s alleged power in the Robb administration that, according to some of the rumors, he is virtually running the state government.
Reports of his political clout grew out of the episode last spring when he threatened to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent because of his objections to the candidacy of Del. Owen Pickett of Virginia Beach.
The day after Pickett withdrew from the race. Sen. Wilder dropped the idea of his independent bid.
The perception took hold that Sen. Wilder had forced Del. Pickett out of the contest. This perception was quickly stretched to include the proposition that he had some sort of veto power over any potential Democratic Senate candidate.
There is no point in recounting here the details of the Pickett fiasco, except to note that Sen. Wilder’s unhappiness with Del. Pickett and the subsequent collapse of the latter’s campaign was more a result of the obvious failure of that campaign than it was the cause of its failure.
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