Key appointment puts delegate back in game

RICHMOND

Standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall, Del. Chris Jones isn't one of the taller legislators who sweats it out on the basketball court most Tuesday nights during the General Assembly session, his brown hair flopping as he zips up and down the floor.

"I have no game," he readily admits.

But Jones knows how to rebound.

Six years ago, the Suffolk Republican 's political rise came to a halt when he and a group of GOP lawmakers supported passage of then-Gov. Mark Warner's $1.4 billion tax package.

His vote earned scorn from conservative anti-taxers and punishment from GOP leaders, who removed him from legislative panels.

Bowed but not broken, Jones steadily regained his political clout.

It's paid off. This month he was named a budget negotiator, one of the most influential posts a legislator can hold. And it comes at a particularly challenging time.

Along with their Senate counterparts, the six House negotiators are tasked with cobbling a compromise two-year budget that addresses a $4.2 billion shortfall.

"We have a lot to consider," Jones said. "There's painful decisions that have already been made. And we've got to reconcile the two bodies' budgets. And it's not lost on me what that possibility entails."

Jones also is expected to play a key role in the drawing of legislative districts next year.

His political resurrection has led one Capitol Square veteran to dub him "the phoenix delegate."

Jones, 51, is more pragmatic.

"I feel strongly that things always work out," he said.

Even now, he avoids finger-pointing about his demotion after breaking with the Republican majority to support Warner's tax plan.

At the time, he told The Virginian-Pilot that it meant fewer trips up Interstate 64 to Richmond.

Looking back now, he said, there was another silver lining: His wife and daughter spent considerable time with him in the next legislative session, a luxury not all lawmakers have at the hectic General Assembly.

Jones' penchant for plain talk has earned him respect from his colleagues.

"He's a very thoughtful and forward-thinking legislator, which is what I think a lot of people appreciate in him," Norfolk Democratic Del. Paula Miller said. "He gets the bigger picture."

Jones said that's the same approach he brings to the public arena, whether he's voting against his party on big issues as he did in 2004 or giving a full committee hearing to the smoking ban bill his predecessor quashed. Last year, as chairman of the House General Laws Committee, he helped ensure the ban became law.

"I've always been willing to share my point of view," Jones said, sitting in his Richmond office and carefully choosing each word as he spoke to a reporter. "To be successful, there's got to be opposing viewpoints."

The son of a pharmacist from the Chuckatuck section of Suffolk, Jones followed his father into the business, first as an all-purpose pharmacy employee in high school.

He later opened his own business, Bennett's Creek Pharmacy, where he has been dispensing prescriptions for about 25 years.

Jones' political career began in the mid-1980s when he was elected to the Suffolk City Council. He served until 1998, including four years as mayor, and then joined the House of Delegates.

Since coming to Richmond, the boyish-looking Jones has come to be regarded as a knowledgeable legislator with an evident independent streak.

But ask him to name the achievement he's most proud of and he declines.

"I never carry a bill to say it's mine," he said. "I have a worker mentality - you've got to take care of the business at hand then you go to the next item on the agenda. I've never really stopped and reflected on what I have or have not accomplished. I'm always thinking about what I've got to do."