POLITICS

The Call oldie Wild

Virginia's Gov. Douglas Wilder
has strong ties to the
Jewish community. But will
Jews support him in a
'92 presidential bid?

JAY LECHTMAN

Special to The Jewish News

A

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, in his executive conference room, is a thoughtful, contemplative man:
To Democrats, he is a welcome contrast to the often strident Rev. Jesse L. Jackson (opposite).

t first glance Virgi-
nia's Gov. Lawrence
Douglas Wilder seems
an oddity.
A black, he has spoken to
B'nai B'rith and the Anti-
Defamation League, to the
American-Israel Public Af-
fairs Committee and the
Jewish National Fund, and
to Jewish federations from
Richmond to Los Angeles.
He has even spoken before
the Knesset, lobbied to
Kremlin officials on behalf
of Soviet Jews while in
Moscow and argued with
Polish leader Lech Walesa
against anti-Semitism in
Warsaw.
A Democrat, he is tough on
crime and tight with a dollar
— making a point to tell the
press he won't halt the ex-
ecution of a convicted
murderer, and producing a
$200 million state budget
surplus during a recession
year.
This grandson of slaves —
the nation's first elected
black governor — governs
from the capital of the Con-
federacy, where he steers a
politically conservative state
in which whites comprise
more than 77 percent of the
population.
Less unusual, perhaps, is
Gov. Wilder's political abil-
ity — and his ambition. The
first-term state executive is
on the verge of announcing
whether he will seek the
1992 Democratic presiden-
tial nomination.

Jay Lechtman is a staff
reporter for the Baltimore
Jewish Times.

54

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991

Gov. Wilder has enjoyed a
positive relationship with
mainstream Virginia Jews.
They have supported him
professionally, financially
and politically. In turn, he
wholeheartedly backs Israel
and pursues these views at
the state and national level.
He supports Jerusalem as
Israel's undivided capital
and has attacked President
Bush for dealing with the
Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization. He strongly favors

U.S. military aid to Israel
and opposes supplying arms
to its hostile neighbors.
Consistently, his rhetoric
seeks to draw blacks and
Jews together, drawing
parallels between "the
shadows of Selma and the
anguish of Auschwitz," and
decrying those on both sides
who have sought to divide
them.
The two communities, he
said, "have a history of
always having worked