ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996 TAG: 9603040062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOTEBOOK
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
John Edwards managed to avoid any political fallout from the so-called ``2-for-1'' pension scandal during his brief tenure on Roanoke City Council.
So Edwards, now a freshman state senator, was more than a little concerned when his name came up last week in the General Assembly in connection with a controversial pension bill.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Edwards was one of several lawmakers who could benefit from legislation that would let employees of certain municipalities transfer their pensions to the state retirement system.
It turns out that Edwards, a Democrat. would not be affected because he did not serve long enough on Roanoke City Council to get vested in the city's pension plan.
The Post set the record straight in an article published Friday.
Nonetheless, Edwards has abstained in voting on the bill out of an abundance of caution.
"I didn't do this for the money, I can guarantee you that," said Edwards, who has put his law practice on hold during the three-month General Assembly session.
Newman pushes parental notification
Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, tried a bait-and-switch tactic last week to get a parental-notification bill through a hostile Senate committee.
But opponents weren't buying.
Newman, an anti-abortion legislator whose district includes Bedford and Bedford County, offered an amendment to expand the bill to include other relatives who could be notified when unmarried minors seek abortions. He also offered to lower the age for notification from 18 to 17.
Democrats favor those changes to add flexibility to the notification bill. But they wanted assurances that Newman and other abortion foes would not try to strip the amendments in the full Senate.
Newman acknowledged he would not support the amendments on the floor.
The Senate Education and Health Committee delayed a vote on the bill until today.
What's going on with Cranwell?
Republican were perplexed last week by the maneuverings of House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton.
Cranwell made a big show on the House floor by delaying votes on three Republican-sponsored bills.
Republicans wondered what Cranwell had in mind. Was he taking the bills "hostage" until he got assurances that some of his own legislation got safely through the Senate, equally split between Democrats and Republicans? Was he trying to kill the bills out of partisan spite? Or did he have some larger plot in mind?
Cranwell insisted there was nothing Machiavellian afoot. He said he had substantial policy concerns about each bill.
When the bills came up later in the week, however, Cranwell raised no objections and the bills sailed to approval.
His silence left Republicans even more intrigued. "Maybe he is just trying to remind us that he could kill them if he wanted," one GOP lawmaker suggested.
And the race is on
Jockeying began last week for a potential vacancy in the Senate, the seat occupied by Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount.
The tax bill before the House of Delegates calls for a two-year delay in adjustments to state income-tax withholding allowances.
Democrats and Republican Gov. George Allen had agreed the delay was necessary to balance the 1996-98 state budget. There was an understanding to let the measure advance without fear that either side would try to score points in future political campaigns by describing it as a tax increase.
But that did not stop 20 delegates from voting against the measure last week.
"I can't believe it," exploded House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk.
Three of the dissenting votes came from Southwest lawmakers interested in running for the Senate if Goode advances to Congress later this year. (He's the likely Democratic nominee for the 5th District seat being vacated by the retiring Rep. L.F. Payne).
Del. Allen Dudley, R-Rocky Mount, voted against the bill. So did Dels. Ward Armstrong and Roscoe Reynolds, both of Henry County, neither of whom wanted Dudley to label them as big-tax Democrats.
For the record: Armstrong and Reynolds were the only two Democrats to vote against the bill.
Thomas deemed too "country''
More than a House-Senate rivalry figured into a decision that robbed Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, of a chance to become a budget conferee.
Regional and philosophical considerations also played a role.
Thomas would have been elevated to the elite panel that hammers out the final version of the state budget if House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, had expanded the House delegation from four to five members.
Moss had a number of good reasons not to go along with a Senate plan to expand the panel - even though doing so would have increased Democratic influence.
Moss wanted to put pressure on the Senate to cut Rocky Mount's Virgil Goode, a renegade Democrat, out of the final budget process.
The speaker also wanted to preserve the influence of urban lawmakers who would look after core cities such as Norfolk.
Although Thomas hails from Roanoke, the tobacco-spitting Democrat who is best known for his support of gun rights and his advocacy in hunting issues is perceived as rural in outlook and philosophy.
In the end, Moss opted for a four-member House panel that is both more efficient and oriented toward the state's urban crescent.
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB