David Shreve spent years listening to Lyndon Johnson.
As an economic historian studying presidential recordings, Shreve had a front-row seat to the Johnson White House, studying tape recordings of the 36th president's conversations with activists, congressmen and bureaucrats.
Now, Shreve, a former historian at the University's Miller Center of Public Affairs, is looking to cross the divide between studying politics and participating in them: He plans to run for Congress in 2008 from Virginia's fifth district, which includes Charlottesville.
Underlying Shreve's run is a belief that academic study has something to offer to the halls of Congress.
"If you learn your subject the right way, all it is, is vicarious knowledge and experience," Shreve said.
Shreve likely faces a contested Democratic primary in the race to nominate a challenger to the six-term incumbent, Republican Rep. Virgil Goode. Most observers regard Shreve as a long shot.
Shreve believes he can win, but also looks at politics in a way that is more broad than his individual race. The professor-candidate stresses a few elements he says politics has lost since the Johnson era: consensus-building and an economic model he calls "the old Democratic idea."
Shrevenomics
Shreve emphasizes his views on economics, which he says are similar to the Keynesian views of many Johnson-era Democrats, as a root of his candidacy.
"I guess I come at economic policy and economic theory, by today's standards, from a somewhat unorthodox perspective," Shreve said. "There are plenty of economists who I think share many of my views, but they're not popular."
To describe the economic philosophy behind his run, Shreve repeats a quotation from the 1896 "Cross of Gold" speech by William Jennings Bryan: "The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it."
In embracing a more active role for government in economic affairs, Shreve challenges what he says has become a dogmatic belief among policymakers that government involvement must be "overbearing and meddlesome."
Shreve cites newly elected U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who ran in part on economic support of the middle class, as an example of the reemergence of the economic ideals held by Democrats like Johnson and the populist Louisiana politician Huey Long. Shreve also sees these ideas as necessary in addressing Virginia's economically struggling Southside region, which is in the fifth district.
Regarding this economic outlook, Shreve said, "the message that I would add to those that have been introduced eloquently by Webb and others, is that not only is it fair, but it's good economics, too."
The negotiator
Those who have worked with Shreve say he combines his policy views with a consensus-building approach greatly influenced by his study of Johnson.
"Johnson's outlook has probably shaped David more than any of the rest of us," said Guian McKee, a colleague from Shreve's time at the Miller Center. "I think the way that Johnson managed to mix real concern for working Americans, ordinary people, with a clear sense of political pragmatism would probably be the broadest influence [Shreve's] academic work has had on his views."
Shreve studied many conversations in which Johnson discussed policy and attempted to find common ground with adversaries. Today, Shreve said, "It's pretty obvious there's not enough of that."
For several years, Shreve worked with the Virginia Organizing Project, a statewide grassroots organization, to educate citizens and legislators on the effects of tax policies on low-income people. Joe Szakos, VOP's executive director, recalled a meeting where Shreve was making a presentation to antipoverty agencies on calculating a living wage.
"He was very genuine when people said, 'No, we don't think that would work,'" Szakos said. "He's the guy in the room who would know the most about these issues, but he would say, 'Well, let me take another look at that.' ... He knows there are lots of different views on complicated policy issues. He says, 'Let's invite more people to the table to talk about it.'"
"Kind of a personality"
Shreve was born in Morgantown, W.Va., in 1961. Eventually his family moved to Baton Rouge, La., when he was 15. He would stay there for years after, eventually earning three degrees from Louisiana State University.
Shreve spent five years as a high school teacher and athletic coach before returning to Louisiana State University to earn his Ph.D., writing his dissertation on Johnson's economic policies.
Upon earning his Ph.D. in 1995, Shreve worked as an analyst for the Louisiana state House appropriations committee.
His graduate study of Johnson paved his way to Charlottesville in 1999. Shreve's Ph.D. dissertation had been reviewed by James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas.
"It was by far and away the best thing I've ever seen written on Johnson's economic policy," said Galbraith, who later told the Miller Center about Shreve when it was seeking scholars for its presidential recordings project.
Shreve taught several courses at the University and worked on the Johnson tapes starting in 2001 until he left the Miller Center at the end of 2006.
Those who know him describe Shreve as personable, with a broad intellect and wide range of interests.
"He's famous for catching people in the hallways in the Miller Center and engaging in long, long discussions of specific policy issues he's fascinated by," McKee said.
Greg Albrecht, the chief economist of the Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office, who worked with Shreve in Louisiana, remembers similar "philosophical conversations."
"Anybody who would talk with him for a while would realize he is really sharp and he knows a lot about what is he is talking about," Albrecht said.
Some students remember Shreve as a colorful instructor.
"I think that Prof. Shreve was kind of a personality," said Chris Jones, a current fourth-year College student who took a lecture course of Shreve's in 2005. "I remember seeing him ride away on his motorcycle after lectures."
Off to the race
As a Democrat who has lived only seven years in the fifth district and is running in a contested primary to face an incumbent, most say Shreve's odds of heading to Congress are small.
"Shreve is an unknown with very little money," Politics Prof. Larry Sabato wrote in an e-mail. "Virgil Goode has a rock-solid base of support in the more populous southern part of the district."
Friends and colleagues take a more optimistic view.
"He faces a challenging race for the nomination, and then, inherently, challenging an incumbent is a tough thing," McKee said. "On the other hand, I do think we are in a period of political transition."
Shreve does not plan to focus his campaign on Goode.
"It's not so much about Virgil Goode, though I don't think he's been serving the constituents of the fifth as well as he ought," Shreve said.
He plans to travel around a district he has "grown to love." Shreve said returning to an area "just across the mountains" from his West Virginia birthplace was "coming full circle."
Shreve said he became interested in running in the fifth district when he noticed that a congressional district in Virginia did not have a Democratic Party candidate in 2006.
"A hearty political competition can create antagonism, but without it you'll have a hard time reaching consensus," Shreve said. "It's about changing the tone and tenor of the debate."
While he considered running for office in Louisiana, he never did. Now, 45 and married with two young daughters, Shreve said he wanted "to make hay while the sun shines."
Friends say Shreve's decision to attempt a jump from academia to Congress did not ultimately surprise them.
"At first it did, but the more I thought about it, I guess it makes sense," said Bob Mann, a former press secretary to Louisiana governors and senators who now teaches at LSU. "He is not what you normally think of when you think of a politician, and I say that in a very complimentary way."
An academic in Congress
While many voters hold stereotypes of academics as aloof or condescending, colleagues say Shreve is one to challenge those views.
"He's not as immersed in elements of academic culture in the ways that it can isolate people," McKee said.
Those who know him are not concerned about Shreve's ability to connect with voters.
"It's not so much that the person has a Ph.D. that holds them back, it's often their inability to communicate with people in their language," Mann said. "I think of Dave as a pretty effective communicator."
In an uphill race for Congress in 2008, the historian-candidate brings to the campaign lessons from his studies and a sense of history.
"My whole career, really, has prepared me for weighing in on public policy discussions of great import to Virginians, to Virginia's fifth congressional district, as well as the nation itself," Shreve said. "And I think we've got to point, politically speaking, where new and fresh views might well take hold. And perhaps if I didn't believe that, it wouldn't be worth the struggle."
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