University of Virginia Library

Hold On Congress

GOP Wins 6-4 State Majority
In House Of Representatives

By Steve Johnson
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Virginia voters Tuesday gave the
Republicans a six to four edge over the
Democrats in the elections for the House
of Representatives, becoming the first
Southern state with such an alignment.

Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. proved that
he does not need a formal party
alignment to carry the state which his
family controlled for so many years. With
more than 99 per cent of the vote in, the
Democrat-turned-Independent gathered
54 per cent of the vote. Democrat George
Rawlings took 31 per cent and
Republican Ray Garland, 15 per cent.

Some watchers wrote Mr. Byrd's
political obituary last March when he said
he could not remain with the state party's
required loyalty oath. The oath has been since
repealed. With many prominent Democrats
backing him — including former Governors
Mills E. Godwin and William Tuch — the
Senator conducted a winning law-and-order
campaign.

Robinson Wins

Republican State Senator J. Kenneth
Robinson took the seventh district seat from
the Democrats, making the seventh a
Republican seat for the first time in modern
times.

Mr. Robinson, who shares political
philosophies with Senator Byrd, was elected by
more than 20,000 votes over Democrat Mural
Williams, a former U.S. Ambassador and
University student.

In addition to backing Mr. Garland,
Governor Linwood Holton was instrumental in
Jay Harvie Wilkinson's race against Democrat
David Satterfield in the third district. Several
Republicans, apparently bitter over the loss,
blamed President Nixon for Mr. Garland's
dismal showing, in that the Administration
refused to campaign for or support the Garland
effort.

The easy passage of the Constitutional
referendum was labeled as "a great victory for
all Virginians, not only Virginians of today but
for those of the future as well." The revisions
could lead to some gambling and parimutuel
betting on horse and dog races, but such
changes as well as any affecting the issuance of
general obligation and revenue bonds, still rest
with the General Assembly.

The voters returned nine of the State's ten
incumbent congressmen to office. The
remaining one, Democrat John O. Marsh Jr. of
the seventh district, had chosen not to run.

Poff Scores Landslide

Registering the widest victory margin was
Republican Richard H. Poff of Radford, who
gathered 75 per cent of the sixth district's vote
in trouncing the Democratic challenger. Roy
White.

In the Southside fifth district. Rep. W. C.
Daniel polled 73 per cent of the votes in a
second term bid against Republican Allen T. St.
Clair Jr. Mr. Daniel, former Dan River Mills
executive, won 14 of the 15 cities and counties
in his district as he rolled up 54,760 votes to St.
Clair's 20,346.

In other races, the trends were set and
remained unchanged. Races that had been
predicted as close or favoring possible upsets
turned into sweeping triumphs for the
incumbents. It quickly became a question not
of who would win, but of how big he would
win.