Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505220063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Leavitt assured lawmakers attending a national summit on states' rights that the proposed conference would not ``mutate into a constitutional convention,'' as critics feared. It would just be a meeting to formulate a plan for restoring more authority to the states, he said.
``If we as states can't even hold a meeting ... we are irrelevant in the process of American democracy and we might just as well wrap it up,'' Leavitt said.
Legislatures in 14 states, including Virginia, have passed resolutions endorsing the conference. Twelve more are needed.
``Our goal is very simple: to change the balance of power,'' said Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson, a Democrat who teamed with Republican Leavitt to try to organize the conference.
Nelson told the more than 300 lawmakers attending the American Legislative Exchange Council summit on state sovereignty that opposition to the conference came from ``the very people we thought would be cheering us on.''
Now, Leavitt and Nelson have conceded, the conference cannot be held for at least another two years. They don't want to have the meeting in 1996 because of the presidential campaign.
But Leavitt urged legislators in states that have not yet approved the meeting to keep promoting the idea. The states have given up too much authority, he said, and it's time to take some of it back.
``Instead of being a source of power, we are becoming an administrator of federal power,'' Leavitt said. ``That renders us politically anemic.''
Nelson said he was surprised after he was elected in 1990 to learn how much the federal government dictates to the states. ``I wondered why I was called governor rather than branch manager for the federal government,'' he said.
by CNB