by Paul Goldman
I see where my good friend Doug Wilder is calling for more kindness in Virginia politics. A most appropriate wish for sure. But Doug didn’t make history running for Lieutenant Governor in 1985 by emulating Pope Leo. He won by playing the hardball required. I know because he usually needed me to throw the pitch. Dwayne Yancey wrote a book about how history got done titled When Hell Froze Over. But as Jack Nicholson might say, don’t read it if you can’t handle the truth. Particularly Democrats. They like to maintain their miss about 1985 and 1989.
So, let a hardball player give Democrats some tough love about racism, sexism, and elitism. Democratic Attorney General nominee Jay Jones had been a sure winner before Dem gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger unnecessarily pushed him to the back of the bus… then threw him under during her recent televised debate.
Back in 1985, as Doug’s campaign manager, I faced a situation with analogies to what confronts the Jones team. The leader of the Democratic Party — Governor Chuck Robb and his staff — held me, along with Doug, in maximum low regard as the saying goes in politics. His people were attacking Doug for keeping me on as campaign manager, saying they likely would not help him unless he made a change. They needed, of course, a scapegoat to justify letting him twist in the wind. Governor Robb himself publicly criticized our campaign. His campaign staff circulated letters about me they knew were not true.
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