Startling and Not-So-Startling

From the Big Apple and the tidewater of Virginia to Puget Sound, the results of this week’s elections were remarkable for their breakthroughs: the first black mayor of New York City; apparently the first black elected governor of any state, and in Virginia at that; in Seattle, the first black mayor of a major city with such a small black population.

But in another respect, the outcomes were not so startling. New York Mayor-elect David N. Dinkins, Virginia Gov.-apparent Douglas Wilder and Seattle Mayor-elect Norm Rice were not populist outsiders bucking the system--not like Jesse Jackson, that is, as political observers have noted. They are Establishment figures who have been around and have practiced politics as the art of compromise and conciliation. They are not likely to surprise, or dismay, their newly won constituents.

Virginia is not the Deep South, but for many years it was the symbolic heart of Dixie. Wilder’s showing is in part a legacy of capable leadership under the two Democratic governors before him, Charles Robb and Gerald Baliles, and the fact that Virginia has become a thoroughly modern state whose citizens are interested in good schools, good roads and constructive government.

In New York City, Dinkins will not be the dynamo that Ed Koch has been. New Yorkers should be pleased for that. New York has been fraught with racial tension. One post-election analysis noted that Dinkins’ strategy was to soothe, not excite, and it worked. Future leadership from Gracie Mansion may not be as much fun for some, but it indeed should be more comforting for most New Yorkers.

There will be considerable speculation about the role of abortion as an issue in this election, particularly in Virginia and in New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. James Florio won the governorship easily, and would have won easily even if there had been no abortion issue. Abortion may not be a single issue of such power that it will win or lose for a candidate. But it was evident from exit polls that most voters did not support officeholders who favor further restrictions on abortion. President Bush perhaps saw the handwriting on the wall, or his own poll results, when he made a point of commenting on Election Day that there is room in the Republican Party for people on all sides of the abortion issue.

Finally, the analysts should not overlook the fact that generally the most-capable candidates won on Tuesday. The voters chose well, again.