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Also, car from being upbeat and ebullient, this tub rota convention activity will be riddled with anxieties and self-doubts.
The strategists are aware that there will be no • Ronald Reagan or John Warner coat-tails next year. Worse, some fear that the Reagan deficit-hatched 1 chickens may come flying home to roost by the summer of *86, and that the flock will be infected with a viciously pernicious form of political avian flu. They fear that interest rates, inflation and unemployment may all be on the rise. If they are, they know that no j amount of aw-ahucks good humor from the White ’ House will return the governor’s mansion to the Virginia GOP.
And then there are the uncertainties about who is going to run for what. Most prospective candidates and their advisors are now proceeding on the assumption that former Gov. John Dalton will not seek a second term as chief executive. They note that he has . 0, apparently..dome none .of fre spadework which ^ pro- ft spective gubernatorial candidate might be expected to have done at this stage ii^ tbe election cycle. |
While this is true/il is also true that Dalton is not exactly your garden variety candidate. Some observers are convinced that even if he were to wait until the day before the 1986 convention to declare, the nomination could still be his for the asking. Many Republicans are soberly convinced that he is their best chance—perhaps their only chance—of winning the big one next year.
So the prospective candidates are waiting at the starting gate for word from Dalton. He has said it will be forthcoming in a few weeks. Indeed, it would seem that a floor speech at the convention could appropriately be used to lay all rumors to rest, one way or the other.
However it works out, this year has seen a turn of events which is both ironic and unfortunate.
The Republicans seem to feel that this year’s elections are so well under control that they can safely proceed to plan their campaigns for next year.
The Democrats, or at least some of them, feel that this year’s elections are so totally out of control that they may as well proceed to plan their campaigns for next year.
There is irony in their expectations, too.
Privately, most Democrats are not optimistic about this fall’s elections, but they look forward to 1 next year’s races with eagerness and confidence. Republicans, on the other hand, believe they have this year’s elections in the bag. They readily admit, however, that—unless Dalton runs—next year could be a disasterous repetition of their 1981 collapse. '■
And both the Democrats and Republicans know that in the arcane politics of Virginia, it’s next year that really counts.
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