Virginia: The Goldwater Thing

One of the most curious new coalitions to emerge from last week’s elections was in Virginia, where labor un ions and Negro organizations combined with the conservative Democratic ma chine of Senator Harry Byrd to elect Mills Godwin, the Byrd candidate for Governor.

Godwin, 50, who as a state senator in 1959 led Virginia’s “massive resistance” to school integration, has modified his segregationist views since he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1961. Nonetheless, on racial issues he still stood to the right of his Republican opponent, A. Linwood Holton, 42, a Roanoke lawyer. Holton campaigned energetically against the poll tax, on which Godwin refused to commit himself, and promised to recruit Negroes for appointment to high office. But the Negro voters broke with their tradition of supporting G.O.P. candidates in state elections. Richmond’s almost solidly Negro First Precinct reflected the shift: though it went 10 to 1 for the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1961, last week it supported Democrat Godwin 5 to 1.

Hopes & Guideposts. Why the defection? Explained Clarence Townes Jr., an unsuccessful Negro Republican candidate for the legislature: “This Goldwater thing was just too much for us. It’s a helluva thing to overcome.” The “Goldwater thing,” of course, is the residue of resentment with which most Negroes still regard Barry Goldwater’s stand on civil rights in the 1964 campaign. While Holton loyally supported Goldwater last year, Godwin whistle-stopped through Virginia with Mrs. Lyndon Johnson on her Lady Bird Special. To many Negroes and liberals, a vote for Godwin was simply a vote of confidence for the Great Society, whose goals he endorsed. Diehard white supremacists from both parties bolted to the conservative candidate, William Story, a Birchite, and to George Rockwell of the American Nazi Party. The last count: Godwin, 248,753; Holton, 194,507; Story, 69,724; Rockwell, 6,366. Of some 80,000 Negroes who voted, an estimated 60,000 went Democratic; Godwin’s plurality was only 54,000.

Despite the defeat, the Republicans were left with some hopes for the future —and some guideposts. Their moderate, articulate candidate fought the most vigorous campaign of any G.O.P. candidate in Virginia’s history, won more votes than any other Republican nominee for state office since Reconstruction.

Holton carried two of the state’s congressional districts: his own Roanoke area and the Tenth District in suburban Washington, which is heavily populated by federal employees; they can generally be expected to support a liberal candidate, and they plainly favored Republican Holton over his Byrd-backed opponent. If Holton moderates can resist the temptation to team up with the conservative-segregationist element, the G.O.P. will offer the Byrd machine even more serious challenges in future elections—when, presumably, the Goldwater thing will have faded.