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(CBS) In states such as Indiana where open primaries allow independent and Republican Party members to vote for Democratic presidential candidates, right-wing radio commentators are exhorting their listeners to cross party lines and vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the hope that she - and not Sen. Barack Obama - will become the nominee against Sen. John McCain, a supporter of Obama said. Mayor Douglas Wilder of Richmond, Va., a former senator, said a concerted effort by right-wing media was driving voters to Clinton because, he feels, she is the weaker candidate for the Democratic nomination. "Why are the poll...

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 4th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; Joe Andrew, former DNC chairman; Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe; Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain's campaign. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.; Richmond Mayor and former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Govs. Mike Easley, D-N.C., and Bill Richardson, D-N.M; Robert Reich, former...

The Talk Shows Sunday, February 17th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence; Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle; Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.FACE THE NATION (CBS): David Axelrod, strategist for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign; Howard Wolfson, communications director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign; Richmond Mayor and former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former presidential candidate...

RICHMOND, Va. - The nation's first elected black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Barack Obama. In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign. "Barack Obama is not a fairy tale. He is real," former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder told reporters at a Democratic fundraiser as the former president spent the day campaigning for Hillary Rodham...

RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) – Doug Wilder, the nation’s first black governor and a prominent backer of Barack Obama, told reporters Saturday that Bill Clinton has not yet atoned for his attacks on the Illinois senator during the South Carolina primary.

L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who made history as the nation's first elected black governor, is preparing to campaign aggressively for Barack Obama, and predicted in an interview that the charismatic young candidate could shatter the Republican Party's virtual lock on the South. "He's not race-less," Wilder said of Obama, "but the skin color is of no moment. I don't think he would be an easy target for the Republicans." The unstinting embrace by Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, could be important in Virginia and other southern states, where his reputation still looms large and the African-American vote could...

L. Douglas Wilder, who in 1989 became the nation's first elected black governor, said in an interview published today that Sen. Barack Obama could loosen the Republican Party's grip on the South.Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, said in an interview with The Politico that he doesn't think Obama "would be an easy target for the Republicans," adding that he will campaign for the first-term Illinois senator.The 76-year-old Wilder, known for his candor, criticized African-American activists who have questioned whether Obama is "black enough" in his style and political leanings. Wilder said the rift has arisen because Obama is not...

LEWES, Del. There's a time in every presidential campaign when the only thing left to do with it is to take it out and shoot it. Not necessarily the candidates, just the campaign. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting close. Maybe it's the view from the seashore, the clear air and the salt breeze, but this campaign looks and sounds like it's over, or should be. We're already well into goofiness, over-the-top claims and underdone conspiracy theories. An Internet headline cries that "Buffet says Obama can spread fairness and prosperity." That's either the view from Omaha (Warren Buffet,...

Mayor L. Douglas Wilder will endorse Jim Webb for U.S. Senate Wednesday afternoon at City Hall, according to a city press release. Webb will be present at the endorsement

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The founder and supporters of the yet-to-be-built U.S. National Slavery Museum are taking a frank tone with corporations in the search for funding. Richmond, Va., Mayor and museum founder Douglas Wilder told the National Press Club Tuesday corporations that benefited from slavery ought to reach into their pockets for this cause. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports more than $50 million in cash and pledges have been raised -- out of the $200 million needed to build and operate the museum in Fredericksburg, Va. Entertainer Ben Vereen spoke in support of the project -- challenging corporate America...

City gets $650,000 to fight gun crime Mayor and police chief are figuring out how to use surprise funds BY DAVID RESS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 24, 2005 Everyone should have a rich uncle like this: Richmond's is named Sam, and he cut the city a surprise check for $650,000 yesterday to fight gun violence. The money is from the Bush administration's "Project Safe Neighborhoods" and amounts to a little more than half the funds allocated to Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "This was unsolicited," Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said. "It took us totally...

Richmond Mayor-elect Doug Wilder is going to court to try and block the $175,000 severance package approved by City Council for the outgoing City Manager. In a statement from Wilder, released today by Richmond attorney Don McEachin, Wilder says he has enlisted McEachin to "..begin the process of preparing the papers to file what I will call the "people's law suit" against the Jamison/City Council law.” Wilder argues that state law prohibits such a “gift,” and he calls on Council to rescind its action. “But if they insist on their raid of the public treasury,” says Wilder, “I have instructed...

Cary, N. C.—How is it possible, half a century after the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, for respected, tenured, award-winning African-American professor Jean Cobb to lose benefits at a university she has taught at for more than three decades? “She is a Republican and an objective scholar who takes a dim view of the political correctness scourge, and of those who use the classroom to indoctrinate students into radical (Marxist/black separatist) politics,” her friend, Dr. Carey Stronach, said recently. “For this she should be applauded, but instead, it has been the undoing of her career.” Her political affiliation made sociology professor...

<p>Two former governors - a Republican and a Democrat - and the GOP's likely 2005 nominee for governor yesterday urged a seemingly deadlocked General Assembly to let Virginians vote on record increases in taxes for cash-strapped services.</p> <p>The proposal, by Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, deep- ened the turmoil engulfing the legislature. It appeared to increase the likelihood the assembly will adjourn March 13 without crafting a budget.</p>

An extraordinary event in Virginia politics occurred Feb. 17 when Senate Majority Leader Walter Stosch, R-Glen Allen, and Republican Whip Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, came to a meeting of the Republican state central committee- which I attended to explain why the entire Senate Republican leadership co-sponsored the largest tax increase in Virginia history. Their bill would raise taxes by $2.5 billion over the next two years, more than two times what Democrat Gov. Mark R. Warner has proposed. It would raise sales taxes 22 percent, general income tax rates by 10-to-15 percent, the gas tax 20 percent, and the cigarette...

<p>November 4 the voters of the city of Richmond distinguished themselves in a manner long to be remembered and emulated. While it is true that they voted overwhelmingly to change the form of government to elect the Mayor at-large, much more was accomplished.</p>

BOBBY JINDAL'S DEFEAT in the Louisiana governor's race Saturday is a bigger loss for Republicans than just an office they've held for eight years. For now, it denies the party an impressive new national figure, a 32-year-old Indian-American who's destined to be a political star sometime--but not yet. Why did Jindal lose after leading his Democratic opponent, Kathleen Blanco, in statewide polls in the weeks before the election? In a word, race. What occurred was the "Wilder effect," named after the black Virginia governor elected in 1989. Wilder, a Democrat, polled well, then won narrowly. Many white voters, it turned...

<p>Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said yesterday the Old Dominion remains a Republican state and isn't likely to go Democratic anytime soon.</p> <p>"The South is going Republican," said Mr. Wilder, a Democrat. "Is there a chance for Virginia to turn back Democratic? I don't think so. Not in the immediate future, because you have to show the party stands for the things that are considered reasonable and normal."</p>

<p>Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said yesterday the Old Dominion remains a Republican state and isn't likely to go Democratic anytime soon.</p> <p>"The South is going Republican," said Mr. Wilder, a Democrat. "Is there a chance for Virginia to turn back Democratic? I don't think so. Not in the immediate future, because you have to show the party stands for the things that are considered reasonable and normal."</p>