Word: byrds
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...Byrd Sr. lives quietly among his apple orchards in the Shenandoah Valley now, and from all reports, is aloof to the changes sweeping through the state he so firmly controlled as recently...
...Sixty-three seemed the year of lost hope for Virginia liberals. Gov. Harrison and Lt. Gov. Godwin had defeated a liberal ticket in 1961. The "Young Turks"--Boothe of Alexandria, Toy Savage of Norfolk and others--who had fought the Byrd Organization's segregation and tight budget policies during the '50s--were beaten and tired and did not run for the state legislature in '63. The conservatives who did run and were elected ignored a state constitutional mandate to reapportion the legislature...
...Organization had begun to bend--and crack. Thousands of conservatives who had clung to Harry Byrd's Democratic party found no home in the party of Godwin and Kellam. Last July, thy created the Virginia Conservative Party and attracted more than 70,000 votes for their candidate, William Story, an assistant school superintendent (since retired) and John Birch Society member. Last week they announced their own ticket for the Senate and urged their supporters to stay out of the Democratic primary...
Virginia's political picture this year is far more uncertain than it was last fall. Kellam and other leaders of the Organization tried to persuade Robertson, 79 years old today, to withdraw in favor of a younger Organization candidate. Kellam failed, and has endorsed Robertson and Byrd...
Whether he can throw many Negro votes their way is questionable. Boothe, in virtually every speech this month, has reminded his audience that he voted in 1959, as a state senator, for the plan which reopened public schools closed during a desegregation crisis, while Byrd Jr. voted against the proposals. (The plan passed the State Senate by one vote.) Robertson has consistently opposed civil rights legislation during his '33 years in Congress...