Va. Beach lobbyist's game plan: offense

RICHMOND

When it comes to protecting Virginia Beach's interests in the General Assembly, Bob Matthias never knows exactly where the next attack is going to come from, but he knows he's got to be ready.

Take the recent Sunday when he discovered legislators planned to yank much of the money the city receives to buy land around Oceana Naval Air Station. The program was offered as a way to save the base during the last round of military installation closures.

By the next morning, Matthias had e-mailed Virginia Beach's General Assembly members warning that the cuts could threaten the base's future.

Over the next few days, he chatted up legislators in the halls of the General Assembly building in Richmond. He met with key Senate Finance Committee members to make the city's case. And he helped craft a letter from the state's congressional delegation urging General Assembly members to include the $7.5 million a year in their budget.

"We've been doing a lot of missionary work," Matthias said as he hit another delegate's office to talk about Oceana, dressed in his signature crisp gray suit and a set of beer-cap-and-bottle-opener cuff links.

In early March, the city received informal assurances that while the budget was still not complete, some money would be there.

That worked for Matthias.

"We'll do it again next year," he said, already bracing for the next budget battle.

Matthias, 60, has been lobbying in Richmond since 1985, longer than many of the politicians have been in office.

He's seen a lot.

He watched legendary and powerful Senate Finance Chairman Hunter Andrews keep a tight lid of secrecy on budget negotiations, so tight that nobody knew whose office the negotiators were huddled in.

"They were wisps of smoke," Matthias said.

But this year has been especially challenging. A budget shortfall of historic proportions has pitted organizations, localities and agencies against each other as they scramble for scarce resources.

Virginia Beach has less clout at its disposal. Its delegation includes three freshmen. And the city's primary budget protector, Ken Stolle, quit the state Senate to become the city's sheriff.

"They are having to adjust to a different way of doing business," said Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-

Norfolk, whose district also includes a slice of Virginia Beach.

Building and shoring up relationships with legislators is a constant requirement of the job, Matthias said. He had a close relationship with Stolle, he said, even filling up the senator's candy jar with peanut M&Ms during the session.

Among local politicians and officials, Matthias is known for his blast e-mails that arrive several times a week and are usually packed with information and a handful of large attachments.

His aggressiveness and independence has earned him the nickname "Baghdad Bob" among his detractors.

"He's extremely passionate about what he's doing," Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms said. "Sometimes, just like me, the passion can backfire."

Matthias, though, understands the relationships in Richmond, said Angie Bezik, a former legislative aide who now lobbies for the city.

Other lobbyists only wine and dine the politicians. Matthias invites the aides and staff members - the gatekeepers in Richmond, Bezik said.

"Folks don't always get the personalities you have to negotiate through," she said.

Virginia Beach spent almost $67,500 - more than any other South Hampton Roads city - lobbying the General Assembly in the 2008- 09 fiscal year. Most of that money was for Matthias' salary and for the independent lobbying firm the Beach also hires.

Between January and March, Matthias spends more time in a Richmond condominium, which the city rents for him during the session, than in his home with his wife in Virginia Beach.

He's in Richmond from Monday through Thursday. Then it's back in City Hall on Friday. And sometimes during the week he hops a train to Washington for meetings with congressional staff.

It can be a grueling schedule. On weekends, Matthias relaxes by returning to a hobby his father introduced him to as a teen: re-enacting Civil War skirmishes. Matthias even melts lead to make his own bullets.

Still, there's little doubt he enjoys his work.

"Everything I'm for is on the side of the angels," Matthias said. "It's helping local government provide better services."

What the city gets for its money is somebody with an institutional knowledge of the General Assembly, Sessoms said.

"He knows exactly what's going on and how to get things done," Sessoms said.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com