RICHMOND, Va.รป“As the first elected mayor under the city’s new form of government, I have set the course that will continue to produce meaningful results even as I now announce my leave from this office at the end of the year.”
With those words, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder brought down the curtain on his nearly 40-year political career-and ensured that voters will elect a new city leader in the November elections. The white-haired, 77-year-old Richmond native ended the guessing game about his re-election plans in a five-paragraph statement.
He recently released the statement that he would bow out rather than seek a second, four-year term. He did so after first delivering the news to his aides and department heads – essentially wrapping up a public career that includes his history- making achievement nearly two decades ago when he became the nation’s first black elected governor.
Facing a gathering storm of challengers eager to attack his my-wayor- the-highway approach that has been the hallmark of his tenure, the mayor touted his achievements and chose to bow out rather than risk ruining his unblemished election record. Wilder was elected Richmond mayor in 2004, ten years after leaving the governor’s office.
He led the campaign to replace Richmond’s appointed city manager with an atlarge mayor and created high expectations for change when he was swept into office with 80 percent of the vote. His decision not to run again follows a plunge in his popularity. That plunge was fueled by his combative style, his never-ending fights with the city council and the school board and a series of missteps.
They range from his failure to keep the Richmond Braves in the city to the fiasco of trying to boot the school board from City Hall without council approval Mayor Wilder was battered most recently after it was revealed that he had been receiving a $700-a-month car allowance for three years while riding around in a chauffeured city car with a police security detail that cost taxpayers more than $400,000 a year.
He reimbursed the city $25,000.. Mayor Wilder’s statement came a day after the man he called “the brightest star” in his administration, popular Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe, announced that he had accepted the top-cop position in Charlotte, N.C., and would leave by mid-June. Chief Monroe’s decision to leave appears to have delivered the final blow to the mayor, who had been able to boast of the “unprecedented gains in public safety” because of Chief Monroe’s work.
Under the chief’s leadership for three years, the police department reduced the homicide rate to a 26- year low, slashed overall crime and solved crimes at record rates. If Wilder expected any calls to reconsider, he heard none. Indeed, the corporate lawyers and business executives who had been his allies have already begun to rally support for a new mayoral candidate.
For the Wilder, there have been verbal and written bouquets from supporters and at least faint praise from his critics. Henrico Sen. A. Donald McEachin, who strongly backed the campaign for an at-large mayor as well Mayor Wilder’s election to the city’s top elected post. In a release “on the occasion of the mayor’s retirement from public office,” Sen. McEachin stated that “we are better off for the service of Mayor Wilder.
Mayor Wilder has broken down barriers and moved our country, state and city forward.” “I think he’s earned a rest,” said state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, a former law school classmate of the mayor and a political rival for influence in the city’s East End.
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Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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