University of Virginia Library

Holton's Aristocracy

Governor Holton went further afield than
most observers expected in his recent
appointments to the Board of Visitors.
Though none of them were black and none of
them were poor, they were seemingly a
different type of man than Virginia's governors
have been wont to appoint in the past;
one was a student, two were in their thirties.

The first student ever appointed to serve
with the Board is something of an enigma. J.
Harvie Wilkinson is the author of a book,
"Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of
Virginia Politics 1945-1966" which, as one
College professor said, "was startlingly good
for someone his age." He is the scion of one
of Virginia's ruling families; his father stepped
down from the Board to make room for him,
indicating perhaps that America, in 200 years,
has probably not moved beyond the
hereditary elite which it brought over from
England. Even so, Mr. Wilkinson undoubtedly
earned the appointment on the basis of his
own unquestionable capabilities and his
political affinity with Mr. Holton.

Politically, Mr. Wilkinson also appears to
defy neat categorization. He was an important
figure in Mr. Holton's successful campaign for
governor. To some, he is a liberal Republican
with an open mind about social problems and
University affairs. To others, he is an arch
conservative who was born middle-aged. One
law student gave perhaps the most optimistic
endorsement we've heard, saying that Mr.
Wilkinson is the most effective voice the
students can have, "because he has the knack
of communicating persuasively with
mossbacks while not seeming like a young
Turk." That's an attribute he's going to need.

Mr. Holton's other appointments were also
a blow to the geriatric wards of the state as he
dipped down to the younger echelons of the
Republican faithful and selected two men
who by age, if not by temperament, would
seem better able to deal with students than
their immediate predecessors. Donald
Santarelli's chief qualification for the Board
seems to be his position as an important
henchman for Attorney General Mitchell in
the euphemistically named Department of
Justice. According to the New Yorker, Mr.
Santarelli's chief contribution has been a
vigorous defense of Mr. Nixon's law and order
policies and a sweeping effort at clearing
liberal lawyers out of the Justice Department;
in addition, he is reputed to have done much
of the research for Mr. Mitchell's endorsement
of pretrial detention which appeared recently
in the Virginia Law Review. Little is known of
the other young appointee, Dr. Brownie Polly,
except that he is a dentist and a bank director
and comes from Governor Holton's
hometown.

If there is any trend at all in the Holton
appointments, it would seem to be that he
appoints people whom he knows personally
and that he is not above using the
appointments to repay political debts.
Lawrence Lewis of Richmond, for example,
who has served on the Board before, was the
leader of the influential group of 160 wealthy
businessmen who bolted from the Democratic
Party to endorse Mr. Holton last fall. So it
would seem that anyone who wants to be
appointed is going to have to crash the ranks
of the wealthy, Republican, white aristocracy
to have much of a chance.

Nonetheless, some wealthy, white,
Republican aristocrats are better than other
wealthy, white Republican aristocrats. It
appears that Governor Holton is willing to
select Board members from both groups; and
that, for the Old Dominion at least, is a step
in the right direction. We are still waiting,
however, for the Governor to make good on
his promise of non-discrimination and appoint
a black man to the Board.