Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9402010245
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If Gov. George Allen has demonstrated a mastery of practical politics, it is equally true that in such Democratic leaders as Speaker Tom Moss, Del. Richard Cranwell and Sen. Hunter Andrews he faces skilled and wily foes, long experienced in running the legislature like a rigged slot machine.
It would be nice to imagine the tiger and the lamb cohabiting in an orgy of brotherhood, but it would also be naive. Before Allen was even inaugurated, Moss showed his customary, partisan stripes by refusing to give Republican delegates anything close to their proportionate share of seats on key committees.
Perhaps it won't matter much, but Allen is likely to end up having to take much of what he wants - or finds he can't resist - in bills sponsored by Democrats. Cranwell has already outlined a Democratic legislative program that will address the disparity issue raised by poorer school divisions - along lines advocated by Mary Sue Terry - and various get-tough measures dealing with career criminals and drinking drivers.
Cranwell will sponsor amendments to the budget earmarking $100 million to provide smaller classes in grades K-3 for schools with large numbers of low-income families and to extend state aid for Head Start programs for high-risk children at age 4.
On the now-dominant crime front, Democrats will offer bills abolishing parole for those convicted of a third crime of violence and broadening the death penalty. They also will revive a measure that would provide for on-the-spot revocation of the driver's license of any motorist having a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent or more, subject to later review by the courts. This measure, which is opposed by Allen, died last year in a procedural dispute with Gov. Douglas Wilder.
On the matter of abolishing parole, which was the centerpiece of Allen's campaign, Cranwell claims that passage of his three-time-loser bill will adequately address public concerns at modest cost and make unnecessary the governor's planned special session of the legislature in April to deal with a much broader proposal.
On the Senate side, Majority Leader Hunter Andrews took the floor to castigate the new governor for failing to address the disparity lawsuit brought by the poorer school divisions while rushing to settle the suit by federal retirees in the pension-tax case. Andrews also criticized Allen for failing to do more for colleges and for not embracing higher road-user taxes to do more for transportation.
In sum, Democrats in Richmond seem to be taking a leaf from the book of their counterparts in Washington during the Bush years: Use the power of the legislature to posture in favor of popular nostrums while frustrating the executive's program whenever possible.
Allen has been criticized for an excessively partisan tone in his inaugural address, and some Republican legislators even dropped by the office to urge his chief aides to adopt a more conciliatory tone in dealing with the assembly's thin Democratic majority. With that crowd, though, it's hard to know what he gains by being nice.
Holding 52 seats in the 100-member House and 22 in the 40-member Senate, Democrats know full well the sweet perquisites they will lose if Allen leads the GOP to a majority in 1995. Their recent actions in refusing clearly just Republican claims for something close to proportionate representation on key committees tell them to expect no mercy if the tables are turned. Signs of partisan bickering will no doubt offend many. But it's a pipe dream to expect the likes of Moss and Cranwell to do Allen any favors, and he knows it.
Just as Allen had no difficulty batting down a gas-tax trial balloon, he will easily get away with deferring bills dealing with sentencing and parole reform until studies now in progress are in and the whole subject can be examined at his special session. That will strike most people as sensible. But he will be hard-pressed to keep Democrats from carrying the ball on a host of other issues. Their majority may be slim, but it's likely to be solid. Without the backside of a governor of their own party to worry about, Democrats will happily rearrange the state budget to please some of their core constituencies.
Allen has the line-item veto on money bills, of course, and is likely to find a sufficient number of Republicans to sustain him on anything within reason. But neither he nor they will relish playing the Grinch who stole Christmas too often.
In his get-tough stance on crime, Allen has a winning issue, and the special session will give him a bully pulpit to showcase his proposals. But he has yet to sell the public on some other items, such as allowing voters to legislate by initiative and referendum and amending the state Constitution to require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to pass higher sales or income taxes.
Some Republicans also will be pushing measures to limit the number of terms a member of the General Assembly can serve and to provide state vouchers for students at private secondary schools. But Allen has yet to give these his wholehearted embrace and may be reluctant to take more on his plate at this time. Even with his support, these wouldn't go very far.
The bottom line on Virginia politics now is this: The money isn't there for bold initiatives, nor is there any real appetite for higher taxes, which leaves aspiring politicians in both parties searching for sensation on the cheap.
\ Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
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