Word: democratizer
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...Webb is standing at parade rest, feet apart at shoulder width, chin out, quiet blue eyes scanning his target of opportunity-the assembled Democrats of Montgomery County, Virginia-and waiting for local party chieftain Steve Cochran to ask him something. "Well, looking through this," Cochran says, riffling through a series of questions written on three-by-five cards, "there's one dominant theme. People want to know why you became a Democrat after all those years as a Republican, and why you endorsed George Allen for the U.S. Senate over Chuck Robb in 2000, and why you want...
...Webb is a much decorated Vietnam War hero, successful novelist and former Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration. He is running in the Virginia Democratic Senate primary against Harris Miller, a longtime party activist and telecommunications-industry lobbyist. And it's strange: Webb's Democratic bona fides are the big question in the June 13 election, but he refuses to offer a pat answer. He wanders through his response, talking as a writer thinks, trying one pathway, then another--and it requires some patience from the audience, which is used to hearing politicians give smooth, market-tested replies...
...Webb may turn out to be a crucial figure in the recent history of the Democratic Party. For the past 25 years, the tide of political conversions has been running in the opposite direction, from Democrat to Republican, and most of the converts were people like Webb: white, Southern, middle class or poorer, patriotic and, often, with a strong family tradition of military service-in fact, Webb's son Jim Jr. is a Marine lance corporal headed to Ramadi. Webb's conversion may be a sign that those sorts of people may now be willing to give the Democrats...
...easy running as a Democrat. There are litmus-test land mines in every audience. At the Montgomery County meeting, a local surgeon named William Epstein showed me his list: drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, abortion, gay marriage. "I'm afraid he's a mini-Republican," Epstein said at first. But later, after asking the candidate directly, he amended his judgment: "He answered me straight and passed every one of my tests." Webb is an outdoorsy hunting-and-fishing environmentalist. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights. He has expressed nuanced reservations about affirmative action and women in combat...
...issues like education and tax policy, as the Washington Post pointed out in an endorsement editorial last week. Indeed, Webb may be in serious trouble in the primary. A minuscule turnout is expected, less than 5% of the electorate, and Miller has been working his way through the traditional Democratic constituencies--abortion-rights activists, teachers' unions and minorities--like a threshing machine. "We have one candidate who is appealing and undisciplined and another who is disciplined and unappealing," a prominent Democrat told me. "It's a real problem." It is more than that: a campaign that will help determine whether...