Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511130048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
State politics is a business in which longevity rules, so Stanley Walker figured he'd get his due eventually.
He wanted to be chairman of a Senate committee. He was. Then he wanted to head a better committee. He did. And eight years ago, he wanted to be the Senate's president pro tempore. He did that, too.
Of course, when it came to the granddaddy of legislative chairmanships - the Senate Finance Committee - he didn't even hazard a prayer, 32 years in office or not.
"On that committee, I was in line behind an institution," said Walker, 72, sitting at the desk of his legislative office overlooking the Norfolk Waterside on Friday.
"I just never thought the day would come."
The day came last Tuesday. The institution, Sen. Hunter Andrews of Hampton, fell to his Republican challenger after more than three decades in office. Barring some unforeseen political mutiny, Walker will take charge of Andrews' Senate Finance Committee in January. The post, one of the most influential in the Virginia legislature, leads decisions about all the state's finances.
After years of riding shotgun to Andrews, Norfolk's senior senator now finds himself at the height of power, as Democrats and Republicans sift through postelection remains.
He also might be at the eye of a political maelstrom.
If Gov. George Allen and the two parties make good on their recent pledges to work together, Walker could become a celebrated fence-mender.
Otherwise, a political battle even more fierce than the one fought in the last session could rage across his desk.
"In all sincerity, I wish Hunter were still there and still majority leader," said Walker, a state legislator since 1964.
"I've served a long time, and I think I can handle the job. I'm sure of myself in that regard.
"But Hunter Andrewses are few and far between."
Much is muddy these days in the General Assembly's upper chamber. Republicans and Democrats have a 20-seat tie after last week's legislative elections, and both sides are at odds over how to assign chairmanships and members to committees.
In Andrews, Republicans toppled the Democrats' top man. And the GOP expects its own internal leadership challenge.
With the assembly scheduled to convene Jan. 10, Democrats are scurrying to fill their leadership void.
The result likely will be a shared system of power, with the veterans heading the committees and the spunkier up-and-comers ruling the chamber floor. Those looking for a new Hunter Andrews to take control will be disappointed, all agree.
Walker is not the strong personality that Andrews is.
Andrews served not only as Finance chairman, but also as the Senate's majority leader and floor leader. He set the chamber's agenda, assigned members to committees and generally ran day-to-day proceedings.
Walker's position of president pro tempore, on the other hand, is more ceremonial, serving mostly as a backup to the lieutenant governor. His current post as chairman of the Rules Committee ranks him high in the party power structure, though a few tall leaps from the top.
Walker gets the Finance Committee chairmanship by seniority. But he admits he lacks the energy and parliamentary savvy to be majority leader, and said he won't even seek the post. He likely lacks the political backing as well.
Said Kenneth Stolle, a Republican senator from Virginia Beach: "He's just one senator out of 40 now, and his party is no longer in the majority. And he's not Hunter Andrews."
Of course, many consider that a blessing. Andrews is known as a tyrant of sorts, with little patience for enemies, friends - even everyday constituents who don't see things his way.
Andrews ruled the Senate floor like the head butcher in a room of swinging meat, while Walker was the efficient, helpful counter clerk. Walker's motions on the Senate floor often came at Andrews' behest. When he took the gavel from the lieutenant governor, Andrews usually guided him through the procedure. Most agree, however, that under Andrews' rule, there was little room for creativity.
"What else do you do?'' asked one former colleague. "Do you stand there as the No.2 man and go toe-to-toe with your chairman? Not if you want to stay there."
Even if Walker seemed an Ed McMahon, he didn't survive the last 32 years by being a pushover. He sponsored legislation creating the State Crime Commission and was chairman of that panel for 13 years. He helped create the state's educational standards and shepherded financing for Tidewater Community College and Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Walker was elected to the Senate in 1971, after serving eight years in the House of Delegates. He's headed four Senate committees. In 1987, he became Senate president pro tempore - a post he won by just one vote, and over Andrews' objections.
Walker and his soon-to-be predecessor have been friends most of their careers, despite some public disagreements. When Walker bested him for the president pro tempore slot, Andrews removed Walker as leader of the Finance Committee's education subcommittee - even though Walker was chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee at the time. Andrews even tried taking Walker's office overlooking Capitol Square on one occasion.
Their voting records have been almost identical, though to watch them in action you'd never guess it.
Andrews has a stare that could drill holes; Walker's eyes are sunken and dark.
Andrews' voice fills a room, whatever room he speaks in. Walker's is small and rickety.
Andrews, for all his skills as a parliamentarian and budgeteer, never shied away from a political rumble.
Walker has built his career more on nice-guy politics. He has a reputation as a consensus builder, not a commander.
No one argues that Walker's style is markedly different from that of his Finance Committee predecessors: Andrews and Edward Willey. But different does not mean less effective, his friends and colleagues said.
And in many ways, Walker's more amicable demeanor and comparative humility could be just what the new bipartisan Senate needs.
"If it ends up in open warfare with the administration, then Stanley will not do as well," said former Norfolk Mayor Joseph Leafe, who was elected to the House of Delegates the same year Walker joined the Senate.
"But, on the other hand, if it is an effort to reach consensus and compromise and work out an honest budget, then I'd say he's perfect. That's what Stanley does best."
Among Walker's weightiest roles in the legislature has been his position as a budget conferee - one of the six people who craft a state budget out of the versions passed by the House and Senate. Few other assignments require as much of a conciliatory nature.
"He'll sit down, go over what all the interests are, figure out the politics involved and then just try sorting it all out," said Sen. William Wampler Jr., one of three Republicans on the Finance Committee. "Senator Walker is someone we've always been able to work with."
Several of Walker's current and former colleagues, when asked about the senator's legislative style, recalled a bill he tried to get passed in the late 1970s. It was to create laws and guidelines protecting sexual assault victims and witnesses, at a time when the issue got little publicity or attention from lawmakers. His bill, in some form or another, had died four years in a row.
It was late on the final day of a legislative session, when lawmakers typically are so tired and short on time that their patience is strained. Walker needed his bill approved, or it would be killed again by the mandatory adjournment.
When he finally rose to speak about the bill, former Sen. Joseph Fitzpatrick remembers looking at his watch. It was 10:30 p.m.
"He spoke for half an hour," said Fitzpatrick, now Norfolk city treasurer. "And for all they'd been doing that day - and had left to do - the Senate was completely silent and spellbound. He gave the most impassioned speech that anyone there had probably heard before.
"I think he felt like people didn't care about the plight of those women. Stanley could really speak when he got revved up."
The bill passed.
Ask Walker if he can still get revved up and he laughs. "I've got some left," he said. Depending on how the next two years unfold, he knows he might need to.
"The governor came out of the stall very fast. He's been an aggressive governor and probably more partisan than any governor I can recall," Walker said. "That's understandable, really, considering how small the majorities are in both houses.
"But I sense that it's leveled off now, and that you're going to see a lot of cooperation. It's going to be a much different Senate the next two years than it has been, that's for sure. Much different."
by CNB