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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995                   TAG: 9511130019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WILL SENATE TIE TIE UP THE SENATE?

AS FAR AS the Virginia Senate is concerned, 20-20 vision is starting to make both Democrats and Republicans look shortsighted. Tuesday's elections having produced 20 Republican and 20 Democratic senators, nabobs of both parties seem determined to turn partisanship into a shootout at the OK Corral.

Both sides are feverishly plotting how to turn it to their advantage - the Democrats by forgetting that the voting Tuesday ended in a dead heat, the Republicans by forgetting that Lt. Gov. Don Beyer - elected to that post two years ago - gives the Democrats a 21st vote not because of a power grab or a parliamentary trick but by virtue of the state Constitution.

It's never over till the judge rules, of course, but the success of any threatened Republican lawsuit to prevent Beyer from helping the Democrats organize the Senate by casting the tie-breaker vote strikes us as unlikely - as it also does A. E. Dick Howard, the University of Virgnia law professor and premier expert on the state Constitution.

The Constitution specifically gives the lieutenant governor the authority, as president of the Senate, to break most tie votes. In other states with similar provisions, the courts have ruled that the lieutenant governor can break an organizational tie.

Somebody must organize the Senate; if the lieutenant governor were a Republican, it would be the Republicans. In this instance, the Democrats are, constitutionally speaking, first among equals.

But if the Democrats have any wits about them, they'll see the long-term public-relations folly of trying to lord it over the GOP in such matters as committee assignments and chairmanships.

For a start, the new rules should call for more than added Republican representation on some committees, as Democratic Sen. Stanley Walker of Norfolk says his side is willing to concede: There should be equal party representation on all committees. On the other hand, Republican Joseph Benedetti of Richmond may be asking too much when he says a tie vote in committee should be enough to send a measure to the Senate floor; it hasn't been before.

Walker says that, as far as he's concerned, ``it's 21-20'' for the Democrats. Meanwhile, Benedetti threatens to ``shut down the place'' if the Democrats do not share power equally.

We're not sure quite what the answer is, but we're pretty sure neither of the above is it.

And we're even more sure of this: If the Democrats refuse to play fair, or if the Republicans take to walkouts and other tactics to ``shut down the place'' rather than conduct the public's business, nobody wins, least of all Virginia.

by CNB