Va. Senate OKs ethics overhaul; McDonnell to sign

RICHMOND

The state Senate approved a comprehensive overhaul of the General Assembly's ethics rules Wednesday. The measure now goes to the desk of Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has said he will sign it.

The changes attempt to ensure there will be no repeat of what happened in the fall, when a closed-door investigation into conflict-of-interest allegations against Del. Phil Hamilton was halted for lack of jurisdiction when Hamilton resigned his seat.

Hamilton, a veteran Republican delegate from Newport News, was defeated in the election after revelations that he lobbied for a job at Old Dominion University while he was securing state funding for the position.

House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong's bill, HB655, requires that an ethics investigation be carried to conclusion regardless of a lawmaker's resignation. It also opens the process to the public once a preliminary inquiry has established a sound basis for the allegations of misconduct.

The Senate defeated an attempt to amend the measure on the floor, 21-18. A successful amendment would have endangered the bill by forcing it to be sent back to the House of Delegates, which derailed a companion bill last week.

The amendment, offered by Sen. Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield County, was a minor wording change. It was rejected on a party-line vote, Republicans in favor and Democrats against.

Armstrong's measure was approved on a 37-2 vote over the objections of Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, who warned that it would expose lawmakers to "political mischief" by opponents. The other "no" vote was cast by Sen. Harry Blevins, R-Chesapeake.

Armstrong, a Democrat from Henry County, said the Hamilton case demonstrated that the Assembly's self-policing system is broken and the voters expected it to be fixed.

"The next time something like that happens - and it will - we'll have a mechanism in place to deal with it," he said.

Armstrong's bill incorporated proposals from Del. Robin Abbott of Newport News, the Democrat who unseated Hamilton. She ran on a platform that included ethics reform.

"I'm very pleased" by the Senate vote, Abbott said Wednesday. "It gives us some transparency in the process, and it also provides protection against frivolous complaints. I got everything I wanted."

The vote was a vindication of sorts for Sen. Ralph Northam, a first-term Democrat from Norfolk, who sponsored a companion bill that closely tracked the Armstrong measure and was unexpectedly shelved by a House committee last week.

The measure that passed the Senate isn't perfect but accomplishes most of what he wanted, Northam said.

Bill Sizemore, (804) 697-1560, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com