Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Attempts may be made to attach the riverboat gambling bill to legislation still alive in the General Assembly, said Moss and other leading gaming proponents.
"It ain't over 'til it's over," the speaker told reporters.
A leading possibility for a rider, according to some insiders, is a bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, dealing with disparities in state aid to schools.
In the riverboat gambling bill, which was killed on a 55-42 vote Tuesday, 20 percent of the state's share of the gambling proceeds would have gone to aid disadvantaged school districts.
Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, sponsor of the riverboat bill, acknowledged that backers are looking for some way to resurrect waterway gaming.
"Desperate times, which is what we're in in Hampton Roads, call for desperate measures," Jones said. "We are examining every option.
"However, now, it's a matter of legislative gamesmanship," he added. "The speaker's the master," he said, referring to Moss.
While Moss clearly was the bill's most powerful ally in the House, few legislators were ready to blame him for its defeat. And no one said his power has been diminished because the votes for riverboat gaming weren't mustered.
"I don't think this is the type of legislation that would undermine his position," said Del. William Robinson, D-Norfolk, another House veteran and backer of the gaming boats.
"This was a bill that divided over deep, philosophical differences, not political ones," he said. "You had people all over the map."
Del. Robert Harris, R-Fairfax, pointed out that he and 19 other Republicans voted for riverboat gambling, leaving Democrats to muster 31 to guarantee passage. They didn't do it.
Even sweeteners added to the bill - including dedicating 20 percent of the state's take to ending school aid disparities, 10 percent for displaced defense workers and 10 percent for Northern Virginia road needs - weren't enough to sway the large bloc of Democratic votes from Southside and Southwest Virginia toward the plan, Harris noted.
He suggested many rural Democrats may have been scared away from the gambling bill by the "Farris factor." The reference was to Mike Farris, last fall's GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, an evangelical Christian who energized other religious conservatives even while losing the election.
Southwest and Southside Democrats "come from areas with a heavy religious influence, and when they look at how strong Allen and Farris ran in their areas, they may be shy about how a vote for this would go over back home," Harris said.
Del. Pete Giesen, R-Augusta County, said the outcome on riverboat gambling may have been far worse had Moss twisted arms.
"There may have been a lot of resentment if Moss had tried to strong-arm everybody by using the committee assignments and perks of the office he has control over," Giesen said. "Like if he had said, `I gave you the committee you wanted; now you owe me a favor. And if you don't vote for riverboat gambling, wait and see what committees you'll be on next year.'
"He didn't do that," Giesen said. "He tried to sell the bill on its merits. He was upset and noticeably angry at the outcome, but he didn't do any of that."
Moss, who said he won the speaker's seat and retains it because he's a "consensus builder, not a bully," lamented Wednesday that if there was a mistake in the legislative handling of riverboat gambling, it was perhaps that he didn't lean hard enough on fence-sitters.
"The lobbyists [for the gaming bill] said they had the vote," Moss said. "If I had been told by the professionals that the numbers weren't there, then maybe I would have said something to those people who were on the fence."
Moss said he was "disappointed" not so much by the bill's defeat, but more by the "lack of understanding" by some lawmakers of the critical job needs of Hampton Roads.
The floating casinos, which Moss said would help bolster the area's sagging shipbuilding industry, would generate 24,000 new jobs and $123 million annually in tax revenue, backers said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB