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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995                   TAG: 9509180079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Long

LAWMAKERS MOSTLY TOE PARTY LINE, BUT NOT ALWAYS

A few years ago, one of state Sen. Virgil Goode's fellow Democrats in the General Assembly chided him on his voting record.

"Is Virgil following the Republicans, or are the Republicans following Virgil?" the Rocky Mount lawyer recalls his colleague asking.

The reason for such banter shows up in an analysis of partisan voting in the 1995 General Assembly session. On closely contested Senate votes, Goode was more likely than any other Democrat to side with the Republican opposition.

That independence is a distinction shared with Sen. Jane Woods, R-Fairfax, who led Republican senators in independent-minded floor votes, and with four members of the House of Delegates: Joseph Johnson, D-Abingdon; Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke; Tommy Baker, R-Pulaski County, and Clinton Miller, R-Woodstock, who led the House in nonpartisan voting.

At a time when many Virginians say they're fed up with partisan politics, the analysis of more than 2,000 1995 floor votes shows that party members - particularly in the House of Delegates - are remarkably like-minded on most controversial issues.

Only seven of the 99 House members who are affiliated with a political party split with their partisan colleagues 20 percent or more of the time on closely contested bills. Thirty-five House members split with the majority only once or not at all.

Even so, a few individuals in both parties regularly side with the opposition in philosophical disputes. Such independence means that a political party that controls a slim majority of votes cannot assume that all of its agenda will pass.

Such Democrats have made it possible for Republicans to win a few legislative victories - such as the changes in the welfare system approved in the last session - despite slim Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Independent-minded Republicans might also keep their party from enacting its entire agenda if legislative control switches hands this November.

Lawmakers who usually vote with their party's majority and those who sometimes break with it say they are guided by their consciences and their constitutents, not party dictates.

"I don't vote on that basis," said Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, who matched her party's majority every time on close votes. "It's critical for me to reflect the expressed desires of the people I represent."

Similarly, Woods - who broke with fellow Republicans about half the time on close votes in the last session - said her opinions reflect those of her Northern Virginia constituents.

While she votes consistently with the GOP on procedural votes involving the order of business and rules of the Senate, "one reserves the right on philosophy to vote his or her conscience or constituency," she said.

"Any political party that demands lock step is probably in some serious trouble," she added.

But Woods and others acknowledge that it can, at times, be unpleasant to be viewed as a renegade.

Miller, the Woodstock Republican, said pressure to conform to party dictums has intensified as Republican chances of taking over the legislature have grown.

"It was never in all my years in the General Assembly any problem until the last two years," added Miller, whose independent votes this year included supporting the federal Goals 2000 education program and the National Voter Registration Act.

Miller said such hassles are among many reasons that he decided not to seek re-election this year.

Other legislators said that if most Democrats and most Republicans vote alike, it is because of shared philosophy, not partisan demands.

"I've never noticed any particular pressure, said Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, who split with other Democrats on only one close floor vote last session. "I try to vote the issue and if it works out that way, it works out that way."

To establish a partisanship index, The Roanoke Times and its sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, reviewed all 2,000-plus House and Senate floor votes in the 1995 session. The analysis singled out those House votes in which a swing of five or fewer delegates would have changed the outcome and those Senate votes in which a swing of three or fewer senators would have changed the outcome.

Any close votes that didn't divide along party lines were eliminated. That left 50 votes in the House and 53 in the Senate that were used in the partisanship assessment.

Listed in the graphic above is the number of times each delegate or senator split with the majority in his or her party in those closely contested votes.

Keywords:
POLITICS