Robb

Robb

Supported

To the Editor:

The media have had a field day telling us everything Chuck Robb has done that was wrong. Virginia Democrats should be reminded of some of the things he has done that were right.

When Robb was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1977, the Virginia Democratic Party was deeply divided and dispirited. In that same election, we elected our third consecutive Republican Governor. We had one Republican and one Independent U.S. Senator. Five of our ten Congressmen were Republicans. Robb led an effort which brought former Democrats back into the Party and led to three consecutive races for statewide offices in which the Democrats between 1978 and 1992 won. Seven out of eleven of our congress members now are Democrats, including our first woman and our first African-American.

Governors Baliles and Wilder brought their own strengths to their superior campaigns and administrations. Chuck Robb gave them a head start. Doug Wilder in particular made history by being the first African-American governor ever elected in the United States.

As governor, Robb developed a lean bureaucracy and directed over a billion dollars of new money into education without raising taxes. Students in Virginia scored the highest in the South on SAT’s, surpassing the national average in every category for the first time. Robb is endorsed in 1994 by the Virginia Education Association. He brought women and minorities into high positions in state government.

Robb was a leading founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, which did for the country what he had done for Virginia-brought Democrats back into the Party. It is likely that Bill Clinton would not be President toda^without the help of the DLC.

Robb served as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1991 and 1992. He raised more money for the Committee than