After 20 years of crossing aisles, Quayle is drawn out

SUFFOLK

For the first time in two decades, state Sen. Fred Quayle is sitting out the General Assembly election this fall, and it's not by choice.

The Suffolk Republican was drawn out of his 13th District seat in the latest round of redistricting, a casualty of party politics in Richmond and rapid population growth in Northern Virginia.

As he prepares to leave office at the end of the year, Quayle said he has no regrets and will miss being in "the center of the action," but he said he won't miss the intense partisanship that has overtaken state and national politics.

"The legislature is not as collegial as it was when I came into office," Quayle said in a recent interview in a downtown Suffolk coffee shop, just around the corner from his last campaign headquarters. "People got along better then, and party label didn't mean as much."

He was first elected in 1991 and went to the Senate, he said, "without a legislative agenda per se. I simply tried to meet the needs of my constituents, and when things were brought to my attention that I thought were important, I introduced them and many of them I got passed."

In the process, he said, he worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. That practice earned him a reputation as a moderate and pragmatist who tended to shun the limelight and instead operate behind the scenes.

During his early years in Richmond, he said, "legislators seemed bound more by a sense of regional loyalty than party loyalty.

"If Hampton Roads needed something, all of us from Hampton Roads, regardless of party, came together to try to make it happen. The same was true in other parts of the state."

He recalled working with Del. Bill Barlow, a Democrat from Smithfield, during the mid-1990s to eliminate the toll on the Jamestown Ferry.

"He would introduce the bill in the House. I would introduce it in the Senate. Party didn't matter. It took us three years, but on the third try we convinced them to do it."

Later, he worked with Sen. Louise Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat, to pass legislation changing Suffolk's state charter to allow for the direct election of mayor.

Now, Quayle said, party identification seems to carry more weight, and party leaders attempt to impose more discipline in the legislative ranks.

"Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty of it," he said. "Once your party gets the majority and you see the perks that come along with it, you're not real happy to give it up. And that, I think, is what has caused the partisanship."

The redistricting process earlier this year that resulted in his ouster, he said, was the latest and most blatant example of the heightened divisiveness.

"I felt completely blindsided," he recalled.

He said majority Democrats who drew the Senate map created a first draft that placed him in "a protected district," representing parts of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk.

"They knew me as a reasonable voice among some more strident voices coming into the Senate," he explained. "I voted with them on some issues when the majority of my party didn't."

One example of that occurred last year when Quayle was the only Republican to vote for a Democratic proposal that would have added protection of homosexuals to state laws banning job discrimination. The bill passed in the Senate but died in the House.

As a result of his less-partisan approach, he said, the Democrats "were trying to draw a district that would keep me there."

The Senate approved the plan, but Gov. Bob McDonnell vetoed it and called the General Assembly back into session. Quayle, in the meantime, had undergone back surgery and stayed home to recuperate.

With Quayle absent from the bargaining table, Democrats drew a map that moved his 13th District to Northern Virginia, leaving him in the 14th District, already represented by his friend, Republican Sen. Harry Blevins of Chesapeake.

"I was surprised and disappointed," Quayle said. "Had I been there, I really do believe I could have saved my seat. But the more I thought about it, it doesn't bother me anymore. It was time for me to retire. I've got other things to do. My wife doesn't mind at all."

City leaders in Suffolk say they'll miss having Quayle as an advocate in Richmond.

"He's done a lot for the city," Mayor Linda Johnson said. "He was always consistent and worked very hard to make sure things happened."

In March the North Suffolk Rotary Club named Quayle Suffolk's First Citizen, in honor of his longtime service.

Barlow, who is seeking re-election to the House of Delegates, said he'll especially miss Quayle's bipartisanship.

"We worked together in a very marvelous way over the years. We're going to miss him a lot," Barlow said.

Quayle said he'll sit out the election this fall and won't campaign on anyone's behalf.

In the meantime, he plans to continue teaching political science part time at Old Dominion University and may consider an appointment or some voluntary role in government later on.

"I'll miss being in the center of the action," he said. "After 20 years in government, it kind of stays in your blood. But I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do. I don't feel like I've left anything on the table. I have no regrets."

Jeff Sheler, (757) 222-5563, jeff.sheler@pilotonline.com