Re-articulating the Virginia way

RICHMOND

After his party won big at the polls in November, Gov. Bob McDonnell warned Republican state lawmakers not to be arrogant or to overreach when using Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's tie-breaking vote to take control of the evenly divided Senate. He implored Democrats not to be angry and not to obstruct.

On Wednesday evening, near the end of the first day of the 2012 General Assembly, the governor renewed those calls to maintain the legislature's traditional spirit of civility as he delivered his annual State of the Commonwealth address.

"This session we must remember that while seating charts and committee assignments may have changed," McDonnell said, "the Virginia Way cannot."

His words were already moot.

Republicans and Democrats had squabbled for hours Wednesday afternoon over rules and committee assignments in the Senate, with motions on each coming down to party-line votes.

Each time, Democrats took turns decrying Republicans' efforts. Each time, Republicans dismissed their concerns. And each time, Bolling cast the tie-breaking vote.

It was an inauspicious start to a 60-day session that will demand that senators reach consensus on major issues, most notably a two-year spending plan, which Bolling himself has admitted he lacks the authority to vote on. Democrats have filed a lawsuit challenging whether Virginia's constitution permits the lieutenant governor to cast votes on other matters, including organization.

On Wednesday, they protested Republicans' refusal to share power, as the two parties did in 1996, when Virgil Goode, a conservative Democrat, threatened to defect if his party tried such parliamentary maneuvering to secure control of a split chamber. This time, no moderate Republican senators followed Goode's example.

After Bolling broke a third tie vote, nine Democrats, led by Sen. Yvonne Miller of Norfolk tried unsuccessfully to block the appointment of a presiding officer to serve when Bolling is absent from the Senate. Others kept trying to persuade their counterparts across the aisle to consider the precedent being set.

Sen. Mark Herring of Loudon compared the events to the divisive tactics employed by members of Congress, while Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath and Sen. John Edwards of Roanoke described them as unfair and unnecessarily partisan.

"The step we're taking today is institutionalizing partisanship that has never been present in this genteel body," Deeds said. "I'm afraid we are taking a step from which we will never return."

Sen. Tommy Norment, the Republican leader from James City County, bristled at those kinds of accusations.

"I am very sorry for anybody in this body who feels that this is a power grab," Norment said, offering this euphemism: "It is a re-articulation of the Senate rules that we on this side think are appropriate."

That re-articulation abandoned the prior practice of designating committee assignments proportional to the chamber's composition. Norment went on to introduce a plan assigning 12 Republicans to the 16-member Rules Committee.

On the powerful Finance Committee, which plays a key role in crafting the budget, 9 of 15 members were Republican.

On Commerce and Labor, which deals with business and industry-related bills, 10 of 16 were Republican.

The remaining committees were more evenly split - eight Republicans and seven Democrats - except for one: Local Government.

On it Democrats received a majority (9 of 15 seats), and Norment, in a moment of unshared levity, joked that he was "shocked, stunned and speechless" that no one had expressed gratitude. Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, retorted that he didn't know of a senator who ever expressed interest in being assigned to that committee.

The new assignments also included the removal of 12 veteran Democrats from various committees, and Republicans conceded they hadn't extended the courtesy of letting those senators know of the change ahead of time.

One of those was Sen. Donald McEachin of Henrico, who was pulled from Commerce and Labor. He warned that the actions taken Wednesday wouldn't be forgotten.

"We will be at 20-20 again in the future, perhaps with a Democratic lieutenant governor...," McEachin said. "The shoe could be on the other foot."

When that happens, both parties may be able to look back to 2012 as the year that changed the Virginia Way. Or made it obsolete.

Shawn Day is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. Email: shawn.day@pilotonline.com.