Theodore Roosevelt Dalton - Political Career

Political Career

Dalton practiced law for over 33 years in Radford, Virginia, beginning in 1926. His law partners included Richard Poff, and in later years both Poff and Dalton were mentioned as potential nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States. Dalton also worked with James C. Turk, who like Dalton later became a federal judge.

In addition to his private practice, Dalton was elected as Commonwealth's Attorney, serving from 1928 to 1936. Dalton won his first Senate election as a write-in candidate in 1944, and became the leading Republican in Virginia during his 15 years a member of the Senate of Virginia. Senator Dalton ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia in 1953 and 1957, in opposition to the fading but still dominant Democratic Byrd Organization led by Harry F. Byrd. Both times Dalton advocated abolishment of the poll tax.

Dalton's first campaign was the high point of what appeared to be a new era for the Republican Party in Virginia. In the federal elections of 1952, three Virginia Republicans including Dalton's old law partner Poff were elected to Congress, and Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Virginia in the presidential election. In 1953, against Democrat Thomas Bahnson Stanley and Independent Howard Carwile, Dalton garnered 45% of the vote. His running mates in that election were Staunton lawyer Stephen Timberlake as the candidate for lieutenant governor and Norfolk lawyer Walter E. Hoffman for Attorney General. The decisive issue in the campaign was public finance for transportation, as Senator Byrd took back his promise to his friend Dalton not to intervene, after Dalton proposed road bonds at odds with Byrd's doctrine of "pay as you go."

In 1957, when the singular issue was school desegregation, Dalton managed just 36.5% of the vote against Democrat J. Lindsay Almond, Jr.. The Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, to which the Byrd Democrats responded with their strategy of "Massive Resistance." In his public statements, Dalton was critical of the Brown decision, but proposed a pupil placement plan that would allow most schools to remain segregated "for maybe a hundred years." The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and efforts by the federal government to enforce desegregation in Little Rock Central High School were used against Republicans and led to the widened margin of defeat for Dalton in his second statewide campaign. Dalton wrote to President Eisenhower, urging the withdrawal of the troops from Little Rock, Arkansas.

When Senator Byrd announced his retirement plans in 1958, Senator Dalton cast the only vote in the General Assembly against a resolution urging Byrd to run again.

Along with Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Oliver Hill, former governors Albertis Harrison and Colgate Darden, Dalton was chosen by Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr. to serve on the Virginia Commission for Constitutional Revision, the efforts of which led to the Virginia Constitution of 1971.