Gov. Mark Warner has called the General Assembly into special session, but the legislature may still recess for a few days to put their collective fingers in the wind. It has been ugly, sure, but most of all embarrassing for a state that had prided itself as more collegial and productive that most state legislatures. Few of the players have come off looking good.
Among those who have are two Republicans – Sen. John Chichester (Stafford) and Del. Jim Dillard (Fairfax). Each have been willing to buck party and House leaders to call for significant investment to secure the state’s future. In fact, I can’t for the life of me understand why these guys are still Republicans.
Some Democrats have looked good, at least the ones who’ve not let themselves be baited.
Here’s how the Richmond Times-Dispatch reporters see the House GOP:
Since the assembly convened in mid-January, the House Republican Caucus has been on the political equivalent of a war footing, digging in to protect the anti-tax theme that elevated the party to power, starting a decade ago.
Illustrative of this: Before yesterday’s floor session, Republican delegates met privately for about a half-hour with Ray Allen Jr., one of the Virginia GOP’s best-known strategists, and poll-taker John McLaughlin.
Asked about the meeting, Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr., R-Virginia Beach said, “When you run every two years, you’re in campaign mode all the time.”
Here’s what Larry Sabato, who follows politics at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said:
“The only thing that will prevent this General Assembly from winning the raspberry for worst performance ever is the massive resistance session of August 1956.
“It was a complete disaster, an indelible black stain on Virginia history.
“Some people push for progress; others want to hold it back. The governor and the Senate have aligned themselves with the idea of progress. I suspect history will not look kindly on the House of Delegates.”
1956 was the year the governor retaliated against school districts that integrated –- even if required by the courts — by reducing their funding.
The Lynchburg News and Advance story continues:
Bob Denton, a political analyst at Virginia Tech, said lawmakers should be greeted with disdain from their constituents for failing to act on the budget by Saturday’s deadline.
And despite the lawmaker’s possible willingness to forego their $115 per diem for room and board, a special session would cost Virginia taxpayers thousands per day as the assembly fights for a compromise budget.
“This has been a very serious game of chicken and in some cases Russian roulette,” he said.
After Gov. Warner called a special session, the GOP, which during budget negotiations had complained the governor wasn’t involved, denounced him for calling the session.
When Democrats tried to call for a vote to end the GOP speeches, high fives and fist pumping, the GOP shouted the motion down while they lifted their desks and banged them against the floor, revealing an almost juvenile streak in among the GOP.
For his part, the Governor has been resolute and patient with the Assembly, though he has miffed some senators, especially the Democrats, for calling the Senate proposal too high. And he reportedly said yesterday, “I have not seen from either side a willingness to compromise.”
Yet (and to my mind to his credit), he’s said his budget – which calls for spending levels between those proposed by the two chambers – is the bottom line: “Let me be very clear: I will settle for nothing less.”
But the Senate compromised again yesterday, according to the Times-Dispatch: “Before the session collapsed in procedural bedlam, the Senate advanced another proposal to end the stalemate: reserving revenues from a sales-tax increase for education, with most dollars earmarked for public schools, and offering to phase in over three to five years a new tax rate, 6.5 percent, for high-income Virginians.”
Meanwhile, scores of bills already passed are held hostage to the budget deadlock.
Quote of the Day:
Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr., R-Virginia Beach: “No one has done more to destroy the Triple-A rating than the governor. . . . I’m sorry governor, but the gloves is off.”
“Gloves is off”? And no one has done more to destroy the English language.