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gate bitterly.
But if the Norfolk experience cast new and troubling doubts on Robb’s skill — not to mention interest — in political leadership, it also cast the spotlight on a new political figure who, more than anyone, moved to fill the leadership void at the convention.
He is the Rev. L.E. Willis of Portsmouth, bishop of the predeominantly black Garden of Prayer Temple. Willis, who appears to be a political moderate, led the convention forces committed to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. With skill and evident restraint, he used the leverage of his delegation to achieve a number of compromises which will, without doubt, increase the influence of minorities in the Democratic party councils in the ftiture. Most notably, he obtained an agreement that efforts will be made to increase the size of the Democratic State Central Committee to allow for the election of more minority members. If anyone can be said to have emerged a winner from the convention, it was Willis.
Still, there is a possibility that the charge that Robb abdicated his responsibility at the convention may be unfair. His loyalists insist that the governor knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it to salvage what he could from an obvious political fiasco.
According to this scenario, Robb saw that the convention had nominated a Senate candidate who, however dedicated and well intentioned, would be no match for incumbent Republican John Warner in conservative Virginia.
He also saw that the party had lurched to the left, and that the convention was effectively in control of its liberal wing. He also may have believed that overt intervention on his part in the cause of moderation might have unleashed a liberal backlash which would only have made matters worse.
Thus, according to this theory, he intentionally distanced himself from the proceedings in order to have more credibility with moderate, conservative, and independent voters in the state. This will be important when he campaigns for Democratic candidates in this fall’s congressional races and in next year’s state wide contests.
It’s a valid argument.
But as the convention wound down, a battered delegate probably summed up the private views of many of those who remained to the bitter end.
Chuck’s doing a fine job as governor,” he said, "but either he still doesn’t understand how to lead a party, or he’s got his own agenda which simply doesn’t include the rest of us. ”
Such is the continuing enigma of Virginia politics.
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