Wilder Calls Off Bid for White House

Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose trouble-laden campaign for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination never took flight, withdrew from the race Wednesday night, citing his state’s severe economic woes.

Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor, said the demands of his office made it impossible for him to run effectively for the White House. The surprise announcement came at the conclusion of his State of the Commonwealth address before a joint session of the Virginia Legislature and a statewide television audience.

“It has been too difficult to govern the commonwealth and conduct a campaign for President,” Wilder said, drawing a gasp from the audience of state lawmakers. “Therefore, I stand before you to state I am withdrawing.”

Wilder is the first of the six major announced candidates to withdraw from the race for the Democratic nomination but is the second economic casualty. Last month, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo decided not to run, citing his state’s mounting economic woes.

In the view of many political analysts, the immediate beneficiary of Wilder’s decision will be Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the only other Southerner in the race.

With a sharply focused appeal to racial pride, Wilder had the potential to score heavily in Southern states where blacks constitute a key Democratic constituency. Also, recent polls showed Wilder narrowly leading Clinton in South Carolina and Maryland--states with primaries days before the Southern-dominated showdown on March 10, Super Tuesday.

Now, analysts say, Clinton has a much clearer shot at the huge cache of Southern delegates at stake before and on Super Tuesday. “Clinton is just going to benefit tremendously from this,” said J. Bradford Coker, president of Mason-Dixon Opinion Research, an independent polling firm that surveys throughout the South. “I think Clinton will be positioned to pick up Southern black voters. I just don’t see any of the other candidates doing much there.”

Wilder, considered a long shot when he joined the race in September, had difficulty raising money and gained little momentum. Polls indicated that he had made little headway in New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary Feb. 18.

Wilder also came under strong criticism in Richmond for spending much of his time out of the state while Virginia continues to suffer the effects of a lingering recession.

Since being elected governor in 1989, Wilder erased a $2.2-billion state budget deficit without raising taxes. But he was forced to make deep cuts in services, including funding for education and Medicaid. And a state Senate panel has projected that without further cuts the state is facing another $1.6-billion shortfall in the next two years.

Wilder said in his speech that, although he thought it was “not impossible” to run the commonwealth and run for the White House at the same time, he was finding it hard to manage both tasks. And, he quipped, he now “has more respect for working mothers than ever before. I understand how frustrating it can be.”

Wilder, 60, had mounted a lackluster campaign that stressed a theme of “putting America first.” The message was aimed at attracting a broad mix of conservative white Democrats and more liberal black voters.

When that message failed, Wilder attempted to draw support from a base of black activists with an appeal recalling his roots as the grandson of slaves and his status as the nation’s first elected black governor. But that effort also failed, and Wilder recently charged that former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was sabotaging his campaign by urging blacks to remain neutral in the presidential race.

Jackson has denied those charges. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday on Wilder’s withdrawal.

Joe Johnson, Wilder’s campaign director, said Wilder had been considering withdrawing for a couple of weeks but did not make the decision until Wednesday.

“The governor has always told me that if (the campaign) becomes too tough on Virginia, then it wouldn’t be worth it,” Johnson said in an interview from his home after watching Wilder’s exit speech. “He had been anguishing over the fact that things might come apart in Virginia. That was the most important issue.”

With Wilder’s departure, the remaining five major Democratic hopefuls are expected to wage a fierce battle for black voters without the hurdle of a black challenger.

The advantage Clinton brings to that scramble was illustrated by comments earlier this week by George Flaggs, a Mississippi state representative and the outgoing head of the Mississippi Black Legislative Caucus. “Doug Wilder is my first choice,” Flaggs said. “But if anything happens to Doug, my second choice is Clinton. I’ve decided that as well.”

Even so, Democratic observers say Wilder’s withdrawal leaves the potentially crucial black vote more wide open than in 1988 and 1984, when Jackson ran. “It gives all the candidates an opportunity to fashion a new appeal to black voters,” said Michael D. McCurry, a senior adviser to Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. “People were not inclined to cede the black vote to Wilder . . . but now everyone is going to move more aggressively.”

One consequence of that increased focus on black voters could be heightened attention to the nuances in the candidates’ positions on civil rights. For instance, Clinton could face sharpened questions about his support of language at a Democratic Leadership Council conference earlier this year condemning racial hiring quotas.

Perhaps the death blow to the Wilder campaign was delivered earlier in the week, after decisions by top officials in Maryland state government, including about one-third of the Legislature, to throw their support to Clinton.

Maryland, which holds its presidential primary March 3, had been expected to be a strong Wilder state. But Clinton was hailed Tuesday at a rally where 60 of the 188 lawmakers and key officials--including the state’s comptroller, president of the Senate, House majority leader and chairmen of most legislative committees--said they would encourage others to vote for him.

State House Majority Leader Bruce Poole said Clinton is “the man who can win. The reason this guy is dangerous is that Democrats like me can vote for him.”

Times political writer Ronald Brownstein in Los Angeles contributed to this story.