THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508200079
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Despite well-publicized barbs and conflicts, the vast majority of issues before the 1995 General Assembly were not decided along partisan lines.
An analysis of 2,000-plus votes cast on the floor of the House and Senate found just over 100 in which the vote was so close that tilting legislative control to Republicans would probably have changed the outcome.
If Republicans had gained the overwhelming control held by Democrats a decade ago, there might be substantial changes in the way the state does business, the tallies suggest.
But so few votes strictly followed party lines that giving the GOP slim majorities in each house would likely do little to change the overall thrust of state government in the areas citizens say they care about most: education, crime, jobs and declining values.
Only 56 House votes were so tight that a swing of five or fewer delegates to the other side would have produced a different result.
There were 60 Senate votes in which a swing of three or fewer senators would have changed the outcome.
While most of those close votes were generally divided along partisan lines, only 11 votes in the Senate and seven in the House were completely divided on party lines. (The analysis did not include committee votes).
In a few cases - most notably welfare reform - partisan differences involved major philosophical issues. Democrats generally wanted to guarantee more government support for welfare recipients who work than did Republicans.
But in other cases the differences appeared to be trivial or based on political grandstanding, such as when Democrats scuttled a proposal for an Economic Development Authority by adding an amendment opening gubernatorial working papers to scrutiny or when Gov. George F. Allen proposed to return lottery money to localities without saying how he would fill the gap in the state budget.
Many of the close votes were not about issues that citizens put high on their list of concerns, including several involving abortion and voter registration.
Several other votes did address two citizen concerns, education and moral values, but may have had more symbolic than substantive value.
For instance, a couple of partisan votes turned on Allen's desire to keep Virginia out of a federal program known as Goals 2000. Allen argued that the program would come with federal money attached. Democrats said guarantees are in place to prevent that and they lamented the loss of federal money available under the program.
Several other close votes hinged on emotionally charged language involving school curricula or the teaching of certain values. Republicans opposed a proposal to provide ``social services'' in pre-school programs for at-risk 4-year-olds. And Democrats, on a separate bill, opposed directing all state boards to consider the impact of their policies on ``family formation, stability and autonomy.''
In other cases - including issuing gun permits and regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages - major issues were decided by close votes that did not follow partisan lines. For instance, 22 Democrats and 26 Republicans in the House voted to allow Virginia governors to serve two successive terms rather than one. Nineteen Republicans and 30 Democrats voted against the idea.
The outcome on several other votes showed that, in the legislature as in Congress, the majority party does not always win on controversial votes. Depending on the issue, philosophical splits - even within a single party - produce shifting coalitions.
For instance, conservative Democrats joined with Republicans in the Senate to create majorities on several issues in the last session. In one such case, four Democrats joined with the 18-member Republican caucus to support a conservative version of welfare reform.
Floor action does not tell the full story on partisan activity, however. Some proposals never reach the floor, but die in committee on party-line votes. There too, many key issues are decided by coalitions that do not strictly follow party lines.
For instance, Allen's highly publicized bid to eliminate a tax on the gross receipts of Virginia businesses died in the Senate Finance Committee on a 14-3 vote. Another of the governor's bills, requiring parental consent before students receive guidance counseling, died on a 15-6 vote in the House Education Committee. by CNB