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By JOHN GOOLRICK
It doesn t seem that long ago or far away, but nearly a decade has passed since the eventful year 1982 dawned on Virginia politics.
In case you’ve forgotten, 1982 was a recession year in the state and nation. The experts say—though it’s hard to believe—the unemployment rate was higher and economic times even tougher than in the recession year of 1991.
At the start of the year, Charles S. Robb was inaugurated governor of Virginia, the first Democrat installed in that office since Mills Godwin in 1966.
Yet despite the loss of the governorship, Republicans were still riding high in Virginia. They held nine of the 10 congressional seats and the 10th member, Dan Daniel, might as well have been a Republican, given his voting habits.
Not only that, but one of the two U.S. senators, John Warner, was a Republican, and the other senator, Harry F. Byrd Jr., an Independent, had decided to retire.
With the state Democratic Party divided over who to nominate for the Senate seat, it appeared the GOP choice, Paul Trible, who had been a member of the House of Representatives, was well-positioned to win. Republican hopes were sky high, though the leadership seemed to ignore not only the warning signs of a faltering economy, but a cleverly concocted redistricting plan drawn by the Democratic majority in the General Assembly.
The Democratic senatorial nominee Richard Davis of Portsmouth made the bad times a centerpiece of
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