Word: byrds
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...hibernation, is making a spirited attempt to take over the governorship from Democrat Albertis S. Harrison Jr., who is barred by state law from succeeding himself. Though Helton's official opponent is Lieutenant Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr., 50, his most potent adversary is U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, 78, the aged boss and personification of Virginia politics...
...G.O.P. has not won a single statewide elective post since 1926, when young Harry took over the Statehouse as Governor and began consolidating his all-powerful political machine. For that matter, no Republican has been elected Governor since Reconstruction days. Moreover, despite his loosening hold on Virginia politics, Byrd's own conservative followers and dissident middle-road Democrats have closed ranks this year behind Godwin, who won the Democratic nomination by default when no other possible gubernatorial candidates filed for the primary...
...keep them growing, Holton has been hammering away at the deleterious effects of the Byrd dynasty, claiming that Virginia's school-dropout rate of 40% is exceeded by only two other states (Mississippi and New Mexico); that the state is 45th in per-capita expenditures for mental health and spends a smaller percentage of per-capita income for higher education than any other Southern state. Holton's most impassioned attacks are reserved for Godwin's anti-integration record and his support for the $1.50 poll tax, which Virginia voters must pay three years in advance of each...
Godwin's neck is out. As a state senator, he led the Byrd machine's "massive resistance" campaign against school in tegration in 1959 and 1960, and has faithfully supported segregationist, budget-cutting legislation. However, since his election to the lieutenant-governorship in 1961, he has been carefully cultivating a more moderate image. Last year, with an eye to the Statehouse, Godwin campaigned vigorously for Lyndon Johnson while most Byrd stalwarts either sat on their hands or roundly supported Barry Goldwater. Godwin maintains that his earlier advocacy of segregated schools gave Virginians a "breathing period" in which...
...their families who have fanned out across the Potomac to settle in Virginia's Fairfax and Arlington Counties. Many are mobile, highly professional newcomers who have liberal views but consider themselves politically independent; though employed by a Democratic Administration, they may well prefer a moderate Republican to a Byrd-backed Democrat. Whichever way they go, Holton seems certain to poll a record vote for a Republican gubernatorial candidate-but probably not enough to beat Godwin...