THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
THE GAVEL DROPPED, the lawmakers took their seats, the prayer was uttered, the formalities of the Virginia state Senate commenced.
And with that, Clarence A. Holland took his cue: Time to catch a smoke.
Not at his desk, mind you. The Virginia Beach senator strolled to the back of the chamber, leaned against the window sill and fired up.
Suddenly, some non-smoking colleague called for a vote.
Holland blew a stream of smoke over his right shoulder toward the wall, waved off the cloud, lumbered to his front-row seat and cast a `yea.'
Then he walked back to fetch the smoldering menthol from a stainless steel ashtray.
Those in the General Assembly are civilized, you see. They try not to offend.
``This caliber of people, they respect others,'' said James B. Walthall, doorkeeper of the House of Delegates. ``I think the days of smoking in a public place like this are gone.''
Yeah. Gone to the back of the room, maybe.
They huddle by the windows or sneak into the lounge.
They lean over smokeless ashtrays and cough clouds toward the gallery.
The days of the fag-dragging delegate and cigar-sucking senator have mostly wafted away.
But yes, Virginia, your lawmakers still blow a lot of smoke.
``Smoking? Around here? Are you kidding?'' said Holland, a 35-year smoker. ``Oh, my God. They used to have spittoons.''
Back in 1944, when Holland was a Senate page, he sat within spitting range of then-Lt. Gov. Bill Tuck.
An adept expectorator, Tuck nonetheless had a tendency to splatter.
``When I went home, it looked like I had spilled coffee on my pants,'' Holland said, ``but it was tobacco juice. It was from sitting too close to Tuck.''
Today, smoking legislators are increasingly chided, often derided.
While most choose not to smoke at their desks, there are no rules saying they can't. The birthplace of the smoke-filled room is still very much a smoke-filled room.
``The General Assembly is behind the times,'' said Anne Morrow Donley, head of Virginia GASP - Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public.
``There are a lot of people who get terribly sick from the smoke,'' she said, relating how a woman once came to a committee hearing wearing a charcoal filter over her face. ``You'd think the legislators would have learned that by now.''
Still, they've come a long way.
The first order of business in the General Assembly - after the prayer - used to be suspension of a rule barring smoking on the chamber floor, old-timers say.
Some say the Capitol walls are painted nicotine yellow to mask the stinkweed stain.
Even rookies remember the day former House Speaker A.L. Philpott belched a blue veil of pipe smoke around former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's head during a State of the Commonwealth address.
But that's history.
Now, take Virginia Beach Del. Frank Wagner, who picked up the smoking habit while keeping watch in the Navy. He packs nicotine gum in his briefcase and has learned some restraint. When he really has a fit, he smokes in the lounge.
And that smokeless ashtray on his desk? ``That's just for those long, 11- and 12-hour days,'' Wagner said.
Most smokers seem to be like Wagner. In the House, they sit on the back benches. In the Senate, the lounge is more their leisure.
Sure, some colleagues still treat them like lepers - Wagner and three fellow House smokers are seated in a pack in the Republican corner.
``Yeah, that's on purpose,'' Wagner grumbled.
But they've learned to get along.
Newport News Del. Alan Diamonstein, for instance, used to keep two battery-powered fans on his desk - one facing the smoker in front and one facing the smoker to the side.
These days, the fans are packed away. One smoker died and the other went to Congress.
In fact, some bet that the Virginia legislature doesn't have one-fifth the smokers it did just 20 years ago.
But you'll still find some who plan to puff till the walls fall, even if it means watered eyes, carpet burns and washing the walls with Topol every spring.
``It all smells like money to me,'' said Sen. Charles R. Hawkins, a cigar chomper from the Danville tobacco country. ``You walk over there and look up at those leaves around the dome. Those are tobacco leaves.
``And they're there for a reason. They built this whole place - lock, stock and barrel.''
Actually, it's a point of debate in the Virginia Capitol, whether that brown etching represents tobacco leaves or olive branches.
``But this is tobacco country,'' commented Isle of Wight Sen. Richard J. Holland, a menthol man. ``Besides, nobody would hand a smoker an olive branch.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DON PETERSEN/ Landmark New Service
Richard Fisher, Republican from the 35th Destrict, puffs away during
House of Delegates proceeding.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY SMOKING by CNB