ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512040022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PETER BAKER THE WASHINGTON POST
DEMOCRATS IN THE deadlocked state Senate meet this week to pick a new leader to replace the defeated Hunter Andrews. Meanwhile, the Senate's Republican leader faces a challenge of his own.
No one is convening focus groups or mailing attack literature.
After all, in this election, the entire electorate consists of exactly 20 votes - four of those belong to the candidates themselves.
But the subterranean contest brewing for the Democratic leadership in the Virginia Senate actually might make more of a difference in how, and what, legislation is passed in Richmond into the 21st century than the much-ballyhooed legislative elections that drew nearly 1.6 million voters to the polls Nov. 7.
Now that Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, has been ousted, the ruling Democrats face a tremendous void at the top, with no obvious heir apparent who commands the respect, unity and fear that Andrews did.
But filling his immense shoes is only the first challenge for the next leader; reaching accommodation with the Republicans in a deadlocked Senate might prove even tricker.
"The caliber of a person like Hunter Andrews comes along only once every generation or so," said Sen. Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield, one of the pretenders to his throne. "Certainly none of us is Hunter Andrews."
The four jockeying to replace the irreplaceable include two Northern Virginia veterans - Sens. Joseph Gartlan Jr. and Richard Saslaw, longtime allies from Fairfax County. If either wins, it would be the first time the region has held the top position in either chamber since 1979, when Andrews ousted then-Sen. Adelard Brault, D-Fairfax County.
Rounding out the field this year is Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, who makes no secret of his desire to use the position as a steppingstone to a campaign for lieutenant governor in 1997.
Although Lt. Gov. Don Beyer presides and provides the crucial tie-breaking vote that allows Democrats to retain control of the 20-20 Senate, the majority leader is the key figure in the upper chamber.
The leader determines the flow and timing of legislation on the floor, oversees daily Senate operations and serves as the body's chief spokesman in dealings with the governor and House of Delegates. During Andrews' reign, very little emerged from the Senate without his consent, particularly since he consolidated the position with the chairmanship of the budget-writing Finance Committee.
After Edward Willey of Richmond, the Senate president pro tempore, died in 1986, senators talked about preventing Andrews from amassing the same one-man power base that Willey enjoyed, yet they essentially failed. Now there's the same sort of talk about his successor.
"It won't be held as tightly by one person," said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston.
To make sure of that, the next leader will not oversee the Finance Committee, which instead will be headed by Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk.
The Democrats aren't the only ones consumed by a leadership battle. Senate Minority Leader Joseph Benedetti, R-Richmond, faces a revolt by the young Turks in his caucus, led by Sen. Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg.
The minority leader - the GOP wants to junk that term in favor of "Republican leader" in a tied Senate - typically plays a far less important role, mainly as the public voice of the opposition party. Yet the deadlock presumably will provide more leverage for whoever leads the GOP this year. The first task for the Republican leader simply will be to keep his own caucus together, especially with Sen. Jane Woods, R-Fairfax, threatening to bolt and become an independent.
Both fights will be decided by closed caucus votes this week: the Democrats on Wednesday, the Republicans on Thursday.
The Democratic contest exposes the wide geographic and ideological divisions within the caucus. Gartlan, 70, the presumed front-runner, whose 24 years in the Senate rank him second in seniority only to Walker, is the leading liberal in Richmond, a fiery proponent of social programs, the environment and ethics laws, whose speeches often are laced with indignation and moral outrage.
Gartlan is significantly to the left of his own caucus - so much so that he stood alone in opposing Gov. George Allen at the beginning of his term, long before other Democrats joined in.
Gartlan vigorously fought Allen's efforts to abolish parole, overhaul welfare and provide subsidies to the Walt Disney Co., even though most Democrats ultimately supported such moves.
Saslaw, 55, a 16-year senator who has lost previous bids for Congress and lieutenant governor, is just as liberal as his friend Gartlan on social issues, particularly in his fierce support for gun control, and both have led attempts to raise taxes to pay for transportation improvements. Saslaw perhaps is the Senate's staunchest defender of abortion rights, leading the charge against parental notification bills year after year.
But Saslaw, a political scrapper known for his brass-knuckles approach, is strongly pro-business, supporting developers - including Disney - against slow-growth activists and working against environmental restrictions that he considers extreme.
Gartlan said his main difference with Saslaw will be stylistic.
"Dick is a more in-your-face type of legislator than I think I am, although I'm not exactly a shrinking violet," he said. "I just feel I can handle the situations somewhat more smoothly than he can if we were locked in combat with the other side."
Uncharacteristically, Saslaw declined to comment, saying he was uncomfortable airing an intraparty contest in public.
Reasor, 43, represents the other side of the spectrum, a more conservative senator from the rural mountain country of far Southwest Virginia, representing a district that stretches from Wythe County to Buchanan County. In keeping with his district, Reasor voted against the state's one-a-month limit on handgun purchases and for a smokers' rights bill promoted by the tobacco industry. Although just starting his second term, Reasor has impressed many colleagues as a bright up-and-comer.
Houck, 45, first elected in 1983 from a district that now encompasses the suburbs and rural pastures of central Virginia, portrays himself as a new face and a mediator in the sharply partisan Senate. But he makes clear that his real goal started out as being the lower-ranking caucus chairman, and he said he would be "perfectly content with that."
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