Wilder Casts a Fresh Eye on Race Factor

Politician Says He Now Knows Being Black Cost Him Votes in Run for Governor

When L. Douglas Wilder was campaigning in Virginia in 1989, he went into Election Day convinced that he had done everything he needed to win and become the country's first elected African American governor. The polls showed him with a double-digit lead, and the post-election exit polls had him winning handily.

He had positioned himself as a law-and-order, fiscally conservative Democrat, and he spent years in the mid-1980s stumping for votes across rural Virginia. And not once, he said, did he feel a voter rejecting him because of his race.

"I never doubted that I would win," Wilder said as he recounted a story of "little old white ladies" knocking one another over to shake his hand at campaign events.

But as he looks back at his historic journey two decades ago, Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, has come to realize that Virginia voters were not as colorblind as he thought.

During a lengthy interview about Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, Wilder said he now believes he lost between 3 percent and 5 percent of the Democratic voters because of his race, although he quickly added, "we overcame it, and we won it."

With Virginia now a key battleground state in the presidential contest, and Obama, the nation's first black major-party nominee, ahead in the polls, many Democrats are wondering whether the Illinois senator can overcome what Wilder did and win the state's 13 electoral votes. If Obama beats GOP nominee John McCain on Tuesday in Virginia, he would become the first Democratic presidential nominee since 1964 to carry the state and the second African American to win statewide.

But Obama's chances in Virginia and elsewhere probably will rest on his being able to overcome, as Wilder did, the unknown factor of race. And few know that better than Wilder. Based on his experiences two decades ago, Wilder began informally advising Obama more than a year ago on how to win Virginia.

He is convinced that Obama has positioned himself well. The state has changed demographically, and Obama is taking advantage of those changes.

"He is doing everything right," Wilder said. "The people of Virginia will give him a chance, but they want to see you, touch your flesh."

In June, Obama kicked off his Virginia effort by holding a rally in southwest Virginia, near where Wilder began his 3,000-mile tour of Virginia in 1985 in the lieutenant governor's race, which paved the way for his successful gubernatorial campaign four years later. And Obama, just as Wilder did two decades ago, has invested heavily in giving Virginia voters a chance to see him up close by visiting the state eight times since June. His last campaign stop will be tomorrow at the Prince William County Fairgrounds.

"I think the Wilder campaign convinced us, and every other Democrat who was won statewide since then, that it is important to show up so folks get a chance to know you and hear directly from you," said Mitch Stewart, Obama's Virginia director.

During his 1989 campaign against Republican J. Marshall Coleman, Wilder said he never felt at a disadvantage because he is black. Democratic activists opened up their houses and businesses for him to campaign. In every small town he visited, a crowd showed up to hear him speak. And he said he doesn't recall having to combat any whisper campaigns involving race, something Obama is enduring about his religion.