Gizzi on Politics

Filling in for Jo Ann Davis

After the stunning news of the December 6 death of Rep. Jo Ann Davis ( R.Va.), following a long bout with breast cancer, no one really wanted to talk much about what happens next in the now-vacant 1st District (Tidewater-Newport News). However, following the funeral of the fourterm congresswoman and the announced December special election set by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine, maneuvering for the nominations has begun.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the district have to decide the nomination process they will use, either a primary or a districtwide convention. The last time the district was open, after Republican Rep. (1982-2000) Herb Bateman stepped down in 2000. local Republican leaders opted for a primary and then-state legislator Davis topped four opponents with 35% of the vote.

The runner-up in that primary with 30% of the vote was Paul Jost, who had made a fortune in refrigeration equipment and real estate. Although Jost spent more than $1 million out of his own wallet on the race, local observers felt that his failure to emphasize cultural issues hurt him. In contrast, Davis (who spent about one-tenth as much as Jost) campaigned hard on ending the marriage tax penalty, promoting local control of education, and her strong pro-life and pro-2nd Amendment stands.

Jost has not said whether he will run, but his name keeps cropping up in early speculation. The candidate who placed third (22%) in the 2000 primary, political consultant Michael Rothfeld, later made a losing bid for the state senate with Jost's strong support. Rothfeld is not thought likely to run and will almost surely back Jost if the local entrepreneur makes another race.

Several Republican state legislators are mentioned for the open 1st District, among them conservative state Delegate Scott Lingamfelter of Prince William County, a strong conservative, and state Sen. Tommy Norment of Williamsburg, who is considered more moderate. One rumor that started late last week is that farmer Chuck Davis. Jo Ann's husband, could run for the seat. However, Chuck Davis has never been active politically and thought unlikely to launch a career now. (Only once in history has the husband of a U.S. representative tried to succeed his wife. When Maryland Democratic Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman suffered a stroke in 1980 and her seat was declared vacant, husband Ira Spellman sought the Democratic nomination but lost the primary to Steny Hoyer, now the House majority leader).

The 1st District has been securely in Republican hands since 1976. However, a special election presents a good opportunity for the opposition party, particularly at a time when the Bush Administration is scoring poorly in public-opinion polls. Local and national Democrats are expected to try especially hard to come up with a stronger-than-usual candidate, with the name of Albert Pollard-now the Democratic nominee for an open state senate district-mentioned increasingly for the upcoming U.S. House race.

Harry S. Dent: A Man of Consequence

Harry Dent, lhe longtime top aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R.-S.C.). was the man who helped guide South Carolina into the Republican column after Thurmond switched from Democrat to Republican in 1964 and the White House aide to Richard Nixon who crafted the "Southern Strategy" that eventually made the Democratic "Solid South" a Republican bastion.

When he died September 28 at age 77, ending seven years of battling Alzheimer's Disease, I remembered Harry Dent as a fine gentleman-totally unpretentious and less concerned with what he had done than what he fell needed to be done, such as his work starting churches in Eastern Europe or heading up the Billy Graham Crusade in South Carolina. Dent, in fact, closed his law practice for good in 1981 to study for the ministry at Columbia International University. As former Rep. (1980-82) and U.S. Court of Claims Judge John Napier (R.-S.C.) recalled, "Harry was a talented political strategist, but what he really wanted to be remembered for was his love of family and his strong Christian faith."

In introducing me to Dent, my friend Henry Chandler (whom Dent had hired out of high school for Thurmond's staff in 1957) said he was unlike anyone I had met before: Dent had lost two brothers in World War II. married the one woman he had ever dated, once they graduated from high school, worked his way through Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., served as an infantry officer in Korea, and. after a stint as a newspaperman, became the top aide to Thurmond at age 26.

When Thurmond decided to back Barry Goldwater (R.) for President and become a Republican in 1964. Dent joined him and, after returning home to practice law, became chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. In 1966, in a state where the GOP had barely nominated anyone for anything before, 26 Republican state legislators were elected, Thurmond won a landslide reelection as a Republican, and Dent's friend, state Sen. Marshall Parker, came within 7,000 votes of winning a special election for the state's other Senate seat against Democratic former Gov. Ernest Hollings.