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By JOHN GOOLRICK
Rappahannock News Special Writer
In summer of 1971, five or six months after he’d taken office as governor of Virginia, Linwood Holton created a stir by vacationing in Wright’s Beach, N.C.
Critics protested that Holton, though he’d been going to the North Carolina beach for years, was consorting with the enemy and ignoring the fine beaches of Virginia. As head of the government, they contended, he should promote the many virtues of the Commonwealth, includings its sandy sun-drenched shores.
Recently eyebrows were raised again when it was disclosed that Gov. L. Douglas Wilder had gone on vacation to Switzerland for a week where he apparently attended some events with Patricia Kluge, separated spouse of John Kluge of Albemarle County, one of the world’s richest men and a big-time Wilder campaign benefactor.
Not only that, but the governor had used a state plane to fly him to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and back - flights costing $2,680, according to records. Though the Governor’s Office has said he would repay that money to the state, his fiscal conservatism might be questioned since the roundtrip commercial fare from Richmond International Airport would have been considerably less.
The Holton and Wilder incidents have in common only the fact that there is always a question about how much the public should concern itself with the private lives of public figures.
Of course, it’s clear that people enter public service voluntarily and knowing that they can expect to live their lives in at least a partial fishbowl.
In Gov. Holton’s day, however, the media didn’t try to follow him to the North Carolina beach or even make any big fuss about the card games some friends regularly played at the Governor’s Mansion.
But the Chuck Robb story has probably guaranteed that future governors and other public officials in Virginia will be under much tougher media focus both in their public and private existences.
Looking back, it is difficult to believe that word never leaked out of Sen. Robb’s weekend activities at
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