ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601140008
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
Hours after Democrats in the Virginia Senate agreed to share power with Republicans, Democrats in the House of Delegates flexed their small majority by stripping Republicans of key committee assignments.
Republicans were outraged, saying Friday that House Democrats appear intent on hoarding what power they have left in a General Assembly they once dominated.
``It's so petty, it's almost pathetic,'' said House Republican Leader Vance Wilkins of Amherst County.
Democrats removed Wilkins from the House Rules Committee, purged the ranking Republican from the General Laws Committee and shrank GOP representation on powerful budget panels.
House Speaker Thomas Moss of Norfolk denied wanting to offset GOP gains in the Senate, but offered little explanation for committee assignments that he alone determines. ``It was in the best interest of the commonwealth,'' he said.
The House's partisan sniping contrasted with the congenial mood set by the Senate at the start of this year's 60-day session.
Senators, faced this year with a 20-20 tie between Democrats and Republicans, spent two days hashing out an unprecedented plan to share power. They reached an agreement just minutes into Friday. The vote was unanimous.
``A new day in the Senate of Virginia,'' declared Republican Leader Joseph Benedetti of Richmond.
The Democrats' Senate caucus chairman, Edd Houck of Spotsylvania County, called it ``a new spirit'' between the parties to work together.
For the first time, Republicans will have a say in appointing judges, one of the Democrats' most prized perquisites.
The GOP will lead four committees alone - Education and Health; Local Government; Privileges and Elections; and General Laws. They also will have majority representation on four of the Senate's 11 committees - General Laws; Local Government; Privileges and Elections; plus Commerce and Labor, which will still have a Democrat as chairman. In return, Democrats will continue to hold a majority on Education and Health, even though its chairman will be a Republican.
In the Democrats' biggest concession, both parties will share chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, which crafts the state's $34.6 billion budget.
The Senate's new-found harmony grew out of necessity. Just weeks ago, Democrats claimed a majority by virtue of Lt. Gov. Don Beyer's tie-breaking power. They said they would take all the chairmanships for themselves.
But Democrats' confidence subsided when maverick Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, said that unless Republicans were treated as equals, he would side with a GOP organizational plan.
Parity did not come without sacrifice. Two Democratic senators, Madison Marye of Shawsville and Charles Colgan of Manassas, offered to step down from their chairmanships to resolve the partisan dispute.
Instead, Goode handed his chairmanship of Local Government to Republicans and, in return, was promised a seat among the lawmakers who hammer out the state budget in the session's final weeks - a position he had long coveted.
``A lot of people have had arms twisted, arms broken,'' said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, the Democratic leader in the Senate.
It remains to be seen how the bipartisan Senate will get along with the Democrat-controlled House.
House Democratic Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton said the change may not be as great as some expect because the two chambers always have been separate, distinct institutions.
``This is a blending process,'' he said, ``and it will be a blending process to the day daisies are growing on my grave.''
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff.by CNBNOTE: Lede