Word: spong
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Spong's first year in office, however, has disappointed Virginians who hoped for a bold new era in the state's politics. He has worked as conscientiously as everyone expected--his large, cheerful, busy staff is most unusual for a Virginian serving in Washington--but on 83 per cent of the Senate votes he has agreed with the state's senior Senator, Harry Byrd...
...Spong defends his seemingly conservative voting record by pointing out that most Senate votes are routine and that he has opposed Byrd on several important rollcalls. Their most notable splits have been over confirmation of Justice Thurgood Marshall, ratification of the Soviet consular treaty, raising the debt limit, and keeping Head Start in the poverty program...
...ALTHOUGH Spong has voted with the Southern bloc on tactical moves concerned with the civil rights bill now pending in the Senate, he hopes to cast the South's first vote for passage of a civil rights measure, but only if the open housing provision is deleted from the bill...
...Open housing ought to be a local matter," he says. "That's exactly what I said in my campaign, and I even said it directly to the Crusade for Voters." The Crusade is a powerful Negro political organization, whose energetic support was invaluable to win the primary. Spong's supporters use incidents like this to illustrate his remarkable candor. His desire to "tell people the truth about these things" has also led him to disclose publicly the sources of his campaign financing and his personal assets...
...evidently wants people to think that he isn't a politician at all. Anyone who meets him is impressed by his low-keyed good nature and with what could be an almost deliberate effort to be unpretentious. Spong seems to enjoy telling stories about the Senate or about his campaigns in Virginia more than analyzing his role in changing the political structure of the state...