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By GEORGE BOWLES
For the past decade and a half, so-called “Virginians For” organizations have been regular fixtures in the Commonwealth’s statewide and national political campaigns.
Since the early 1970s each election has seen the formation of such groups as Virginians for Byrd, Virginians for Robb and Virginians for Warner. In this year’s race for governor, both Republican Wyatt Durrette and Democrat Gerald Baliles have assembled impressive “Virginians For” rosters.
These independent groups function outside the party system, and while they will support one member of a party’s ticket, they may, and frequently do, actively oppose other candidates on that same ticket. They are solely concerned with the election of individuals and generally have no interest in partisan loyalties.
How these organizations came about and what their functions seem to be provide an interesting commentary on the politics of the Old Dominion.
Their origin is rooted in a basic assumption. That is, in order to have, a chance of winning, a candidate must establish reasonably conservative credentials. Beyond that, he or she must also establish credibility as an electable candidate among people who are attuned to Virginia politics and who are themselves respected both around the state and in their local communities.
Hence, from the state’s vast pool of independent conservatives (and some loosely attached party people) the candidates scramble to assemble as lengthy a list as possible of the influential Virginians. They will become the core of the candidate’s “Virginians For” group.
That such a practice has become virtually institutionalized says a great deal about the anemic condition of both the formal Democratic and Republican party structures in the state.
In hard but unfortunate fact, approximately one-third of the Virginia electorate rejects both parties. Indeed, they come close to rejecting politics altogether. The only way they might be persuaded to come to the polls and vote is for someone they trust — someone whom they feel is “sound thinkin” — to vouch for a candidate in persuasive enough terms to stir the voters.
The exhortations of party workers would draw only a yawn
93.5%