I’ve avoid discussing the Democratic Senate primary since resurrecting this blog last month for a couple of reasons: Both candidates give me pause. Miller tends to talk in platitudes and can easily be painted as a “typical liberal” that Virginians will reject, and Webb lacks personality and seems a poor campaigner. I also wanted to avoid the self-destructive rants occurring on other blogs. The end result will be a severely damaged candidate come the fall.
But Roz Helderman has a generally sympathetic article about Jim Webb’s campaign in The Washington Post today. Sympathetic because it begins and ends with positive statements about Webb, she highlights the fact that he is not “a typical candidate for a Democratic Party nomination,” writes several very positive images about the man and his career. She describes him as “thinking deeply” and that he has been “thinking about the issue [of affirmative action] for years.” Twice describing him as a thoughtful person is pretty powerful stuff.
But it’s the issue and his take on it that most interests me, not solely because it’s nuanced but because I find it thoughtful. (But I’m giving you an opinion here, not “reporting.”)
Webb comes to an unusual view among candidates in either major party: He supports affirmative action for blacks but otherwise thinks preferential job and education programs should be awarded based on economic conditions or eliminated altogether.
“I think it’s time to either open this thing up to poor white groups or just go back to a level playing field — while keeping an eye on African Americans,” said Webb, who is white. “I’m a strong supporter of affirmative action in its original intent, which is to help African Americans.”
…”He’s essentially articulated a position on affirmative action that almost no one articulates today,” said Robert D. Holsworth, a professor of government at Virginia Commonwealth University who has written a book on affirmative action. “It’s not an indefensible position, but it’s not a position that fits comfortably into the normal debate.”
Webb acknowledges his textured stand is not ready-made for a stump speech and hardly a “30-second sound bite.”
Besides using the “level playing field” theme I like, he deftly turns the issue to the needs of poorer white folks, who in today’s economy are increasingly disadvantaged due to lack of access to an education and the loss of manufacturing jobs. Framing the issue that way might mitigate the baser tendencies of some voters. Of course, as the article points out, it may just as easily hurt him with everybody. Certainly, a leader of the Virginia House Black Caucus isn’t happy.
“Webb is a Republican disguised as a Democrat,” said Del. Lionell Spruill Sr. (D-Chesapeake), a Miller supporter and one of seven members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus to endorse the former Fairfax Democratic Committee chairman. “Harris Miller and I go way back, and he has always been for affirmative action.”
But the black caucus loves affirmative action to the point of insisting that at least one member of the caucus staff, which in total now number two, be black.