Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506290096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
They knew it could tarnish everyone involved. That it would feed a growing cynicism that politicians put partisan games ahead of the public's interest.
Still, neither side blinked when Allen refused Wednesday to call a special legislative session that could have ended the decade-long dispute.
Both sides insist that the pipeline compact died because a constitutional principle was at stake: Can the governor tell the legislature how to conduct its business?
But the pipeline deal also buckled under a barrage of election-year politics.
It's hard to say exactly why it collapsed.
How could it fail, when three powerful players - Allen; House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk; and Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton - said they wanted the pipeline built? Republicans and Democrats worked long hours under a tight deadline to reach a deal they thought was acceptable, and they can't even get the legislature to consider it?
The answers could rest on a dirty secret of the pipeline negotiations: Both Allen and the Democrats stood to lose politically if the plan ever saw the light of day in the General Assembly.
Interviews with dozens of lawmakers, lobbyists and Allen administration officials during the last two weeks provide a telling picture of the politics of the pipeline negotiations:
For Allen, a special legislative session could have meant a potentially embarrassing election-year defeat. Opposition swelled in recent days, and many people - including the governor - questioned whether the pipeline would have passed the General Assembly anyway.
The pipeline's procedural strangling also meant Allen side-stepped a rift with a core group of his supporters: Voters in Southside Virginia who saw the pipeline as a 76-mile pilferage of their natural resources.
And he spared Virginia Beach - another Allen stronghold - from what could have been quite a thumping by other regions of the state. Some lawmakers in Northern Virginia were not eager to make sacrifices for the beach's benefit and could have demanded money, roads, political favors - anything short of blood - in trade for their support.
``There could be no end to what they might demand,'' one Republican senator said. ``Is it worth all that?''
The stakes could have been equally high for the Democrats, who also risked political wounds in Southside. Residents there might not have looked favorably on a Democrat-controlled legislature that made the pipeline happen.
Plus, the two top leaders in the House of Delegates - both Democrats - are divided on the pipeline. Speaker Moss, from Norfolk, says he would vote for it, while Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, from Roanoke County, wants it to fail.
The Moss/Cranwell leadership was largely responsible for Allen's parliamentary drubbing during this year's regular legislative session. An in-party tiff might crush the Democrats' election-year buzz.
All 140 legislative seats will be on the ballot in November. Democrats hold slim majorities in both houses, and both sides are stockpiling political rations.
``This is not the year for embarrassments,'' one House Democrat said. ``Everyone thinks that.''
Besides, a thwarted session would seem to answer all the Democrats' worries: They deny Allen credit for the pipeline in Virginia Beach, and can still hammer him for his support in Southside.
Allen, likewise, can accuse the Democrats of being obstructionists. He wanted a session, he says. The Democrats blew their chance.
Both sides deny political motives - except by their opponents.
``There are different motivations on this,'' Allen said during a radio interview Wednesday afternoon. ``Some of them are just opposed to the pipeline. You have others who are in a bind on it and want to use petty, partisan gamesmanship any way they can.''
``I think the governor was looking for a way to get out of calling this session,'' Moss said, ``because it was such a hot issue in parts of the state where interbasin transfer is so controversial.''
Even if both sides come out looking foolish for killing a deal to solve Virginia Beach's water problems only because they couldn't agree on how long to meet and what to debate, some political observers say it won't matter much. Arguments about the Constitution, separation of powers and procedural resolutions hardly make for tasty campaign chow.
And lawmakers in Virginia Beach might have lost some regard, after imposing their troubles on legislators from the rest of the state - and telling them how to solve them.
But the prospect of a pipeline from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach is not dead, it's just soaring off another precipice. Support for the project in Virginia Beach has always brought it back.
Leslie K. Fenlon Jr., president of the Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations, faxed a protest to the governor Wednesday afternoon.
``You can't tell me he wasn't playing politics with us,'' said Fenlon, who voted for Allen in 1993.
``I just can't believe it. I really can't.''
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB