Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995 TAG: 9507100043
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Democrats' entreaties to Del. A. R. "Pete" Giesen Jr. not to step aside are one measure of the tremendous bipartisan respect afforded the Republican from Waynesboro. But after 30 years in the House, Giesen says it's time to go. And Virginians throughout the state, regardless of political persuasion, have reason to regret his leave-taking.
For starters, Giesen may know more about state government than any other Republican who has ever served in the General Assembly. He's long been a member of the House Appropriations Committee, a budget-shaping panel that has its fingers on every lever of the state bureaucracy, and few on that panel have worked as diligently in the interests of the mentally ill, the homeless, other disadvantaged citizens and all ordinary citizens.
Beyond the loss of his expertise in government's workings, and his enlightened views as to how good government should work, Giesen's departure may mark the end of an era in which statesmanship and civility attended General Assembly sessions.
Indeed, the malicious partisan back-stabbing and bomb-throwing that characterized this year's legislature may have hastened the 63-year-old Giesen's retirement. As a kind and gentlemanly Virginian first, Republican second, Giesen could not feel comfortable in the Capitol's harsh new climate. Giesen, once minority leader when Republicans ranks were so thin they could caucus in an elevator, has worked hard for a strong two-party system in Virginia and toward GOP parity in the assembly. However, it can be no source of pride to him the mean-spirited competitiveness this seems to have wrought.
Giesen's retirement may also spell an end to a chapter of Virginia history when mountain-valley Republicans were a force to be reckoned with in statewide politics. Reared in Radford, a boyhood friend of the late Republican Gov. John Dalton, Giesen hailed from a political family. Both his parents served on Radford City Council. His father served as Radford's mayor. His mother, Charlotte Giesen, who died earlier this year, was one of the first women to serve in the House of Delegates.
Pete Giesen, who had moved to the Augusta County area, was encouraged to run for the legislature by Judge Ted Dalton of Radford - John's stepfather, and the father of the reform movement of mountain-valley Republicans in the 1950s and '60s. Giesen entered politics in league with other progressive-minded Republicans, including former Del. and Congressman M. Caldwell Butler of Roanoke, and former Gov. Linwood Holton of Roanoke.
There are today still a few, a handful at most, of Republicans in the legislature who are unafraid to accept the moderate label. Among them, for example, are Dels. Andy Guest of Front Royal and Vince Callahan of McLean. But Giesen is probably the last in the House to be closely identified with the mountain-valley tradition that did so much to transform many arrogant and oppressive state policies put in place by once-entrenched conservative Democrats.
Today, not a few Virginians fear a return of such policies, except this time under the aegis of the GOP's right wing. The absence of Pete Giesen's influence and integrity in Richmond may be sorely felt.
by CNB