Terry McAuliffe and the battle for Virginia
THE ONLY man to serve two terms as governor of the Old Dominion since the civil war was a courtly “Virginia gentleman” and segregationist called Mills Godwin. Hailing from the rural south of the state, whose large black population and racism recalled the Deep South, Godwin claimed that letting black children attend Virginia’s better schools “would be a cancer eating at the very lifeblood of our public education system”. It is interesting to wonder what he would have made of Terry McAuliffe, who looks well-placed to match his achievement in November.
Flamboyant, some might even say shameless, “the Macker” is a carpet-bagging native of New York who was governor in 2014-18 and formerly known as a fast-talking Clinton crony and outlandishly good fund-raiser. He allegedly inspired (though he denied it) a scheme to Airbnb the Lincoln Bedroom to Bill Clinton’s top donors. He once wrestled a 280lb alligator for a $15,000 gift to Jimmy Carter’s re-election campaign. Godwin and the Macker, who won Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial primary last week in a blowout, have two big things in common.
Both transformed their reputations in office. The segregationist ushered in Virginia’s first sales tax and bond issuance, leading to new roads and a community-college system. The Macker, working around a militant Republican legislature, re...