
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995                   TAG: 9501260086
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: J. BRANDON BELL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHO DONE IT? NOT THE GOVERNOR

WHILE READING the Jan. 19 letter to the editor by Del. C. Richard Cranwell (``Gov. Allen orchestrated legislature's opening-day fracas''), I was disturbed by the absurdity of its misguided contents. It was so inaccurate that I first thought he was writing about another state's legislative pursuits.

Cranwell is in no position to comment on actions Senate Republicans took on the first day of the session. He isn't a senator, a Republican or the governor of Virginia, which is something else that seems to frustrate him.

It's interesting that Cranwell failed to mention what Senate Republicans found so objectionable. Buried deep within ordinarily routine rules was a provision that would have given an unprecedented power to the speaker of the House and the Senate's president pro tem - a power equal to that of the governor regarding bill introduction.

(As chief executive of the commonwealth, the governor has the sole right to introduce legislation at any time to the General Assembly. This is normally reserved for emergency measures.)

On that first day, we were led by Republican Sen. Malfourd ``Bo'' Trumbo of Fincastle, who pointed out that this provision was a vast change in how the General Assembly operated. Never did he or the rest of the Republicans think that Democrats would refuse to remove the provision.

After the vote on Jan. 11 at 1:30 p.m., Senate Democrats moved to adjourn until noon Thursday. Senate Republicans voted against this motion. It was our hope that we could work out a compromise instead of delaying the issue until the next business day. The governor had planned to address a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly that evening to deliver his state-of-the-commonwealth address - as had been the tradition for 75 years. Senate Democrats prevailed along party lines in the motion to adjourn, gleefully thinking that they had prevented Allen from having the opportunity to address the joint assembly and, thereby, the citizens of Virginia.

Allen, however, made a decision at 3:30 p.m. to address the people of Virginia directly from his office. The timing of the events must be pointed out since Cranwell conveniently left them out of his letter of the ``facts.''

At about 5 p.m., Democrats in both chambers got the surprising word that the governor had decided to go ahead and address the people directly. Then and only then did they pass a hurried resolution to invite Allen to speak in the House chamber.

Furthermore, Cranwell stated that this was accepted by the Senate. That's simply untrue, because the Senate wasn't even in session. Remember, Senate Democrats had voted to end discussion of a compromise by adjourning until noon the next day.

The reality of the first day was that Democrats tried an outright power grab. We Republicans in the Senate stopped them dead cold.

House Majority Leader Cranwell has once again tried to twist reality to suit him. He, along with other Democratic long-termers, should realize that Virginians just won't stand for it anymore.

J. Brandon Bell of Roanoke is a Republican member of the Virginia Senate.

by CNB