Former Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. of Virginia dies

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the Democrat-turned-independent who began his career as a staunch segregationist and preached fiscal restraint in Washington long before it became fashionable, has died. He was 98.

Byrd's son, Tom Byrd, is president and publisher of The Winchester Star, which first reported the death. Tom Byrd's office confirmed that the former senator died Tuesday.

Byrd served 17 years in the U.S. Senate, replacing his powerful father, Harry Flood Byrd, a U.S. senator from 1933 until failing health forced him to retire in late 1965. Gov. Albertis Harrison appointed the younger Byrd, a longtime state senator who, like his father, supported segregation.

In 1966, Byrd won a special election for the remaining years of his father's term. Switching from Democrat to independent, Byrd won re-election in 1970 and 1976.

Even as an independent, Byrd got more votes than the Democratic and Republican candidates combined. It was only the second time an independent won a U.S. Senate seat.

"It's a hard way to run, but if you can win that way it's the best way to win," Byrd later said. "You're totally free of obligations to anybody. ... You don't have to follow a party line."

He made a career of preaching the value of fiscal restraint. He claimed Congress could balance the budget if it could just hold annual spending increases to the 3 percent to 5 percent range and even criticized President Reagan military buildup as "giving the Pentagon the impression it has a blank check."

When he retired in 1982, Byrd said he was leaving public service with his convictions and integrity intact, but with regret that "Congress refuses to obey its own law which mandates a balanced budget."

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