Gerald L. Baliles died October 29, 2019 — three weeks ago. I was a Virginia resident and politically active during the entire time of his tenure as Governor. During his election campaign I was a member of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. Back then, Fairfax County was pretty Republican although willing to vote for moderate Democrats in some elections. So it would be fair to describe it as “purple” in today’s lingo.
What is significant is that I worked hard to keep him from becoming Governor. It was the first gubernatorial campaign I had worked on. I thought he was way too conservative. I first campaigned for one, then another Democrat right up to the State Convention (no primaries in those days) whom I thought would be more liberal. Baliles won the nomination; while he actually had represented the Richmond area in the Virginia House of Delegates; most of his support was from rural areas that were highly suspect of still harboring Byrd Organization loyalties. (In fact, the old Byrd folks had mostly already become Republicans, retired, or died.)
But my side lost, and we sort of took condolence from the other statewide nominees: For Lt. Governor we nominated an African American State Senator, L. Douglas Wilder (who would later get elected governor and unexpectedly become an obnoxious fiscal conservative while in office) and for Attorney General a female State Delegate, Mary Sue Terry (from the same rural southside county in which Baliles grew up that was dominated politically by the unreconstructed Byrd Democrat, then VA House of Delegates Speaker A. L. Philpott). Amazingly, all three candidates won.
And Baliles turned out to accomplish more progressive actions than any Governor in over a century. He got the legislature to raise taxes for transportation, somehow getting the alliance of conservative-if-not-reactionary Democrats who were aligned with Republicans and dominated the Virginia General Assembly to go along. He promoted international trade and Virginia’s exports boomed. He also got the General Assembly to increase funding for all levels of education with an emphasis on increasing pay for teachers at all levels. He strengthened environmental protection laws, particularly regarding the Chesapeake Bay. He appointed the first woman to the Virginia Supreme Court, Elizabeth Lacy. He dared criticize the corruption of college sports — while giving the commencement address at the university that had been plagued by athletics scandals.
And in a speech in Gettysburg on the 125th anniversary of that bloody Civil War battle, he said what not even the most radical Virginians had been willing to say — that the cause of the South had been wrong. See this article. It is appropriate for me to share this on the 156th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I was born on this day as well, more years ago than I wish to admit to. I also need to give a hat tip to Tom Perriello, whose Facebook post alerted me to the article about the Gettysburg speech.
Governor, your life is appreciated and you are missed.