THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601130309
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Hours after Democrats in the Virginia Senate agreed to share power with Republicans, Democrats in the House of Delegates flexed their puny majority by stripping Republicans of key committee assignments.
Republicans were outraged, saying Friday that House Democrats appear intent on hoarding what control they have left in a General Assembly they once dominated.
``It's so petty, it's almost pathetic,'' said House Republican Leader S. Vance Wilkins Jr. of Amherst County.
Democrats yanked Wilkins from the House Rules Committee, purged the ranking Republican from General Laws Committee and shrunk GOP representation on powerful budget panels. Thomas W. Moss of Norfolk denied wanting to offset GOP gains in the Senate, but offered little explanation for the committee assignments that he alone controlled.
``It was in the best interests of the Commonwealth,'' he said.
The House's sniping - the kind of partisan behavior Virginians hate, according to a 1995 poll by The Virginian-Pilot - 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 split between Democrats and Republicans - spent two days hashing out an unprecedented plan to share power. They reached an agreement just after midnight Thursday. The vote was unanimous.
``A new day in the Senate of Virginia,'' declared Republican Leader Joseph B. Benedetti of Richmond.
Democrat R. Edward Houck of Spotsylvania called it ``a new spirit'' among 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 committees that approve laws related to education, business matters, local government and elections. They also will have majority representation on four of the Senate's 11 committees.
In perhaps 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 newfound harmony grew from necessity. Just weeks ago, Democrats claimed a full-blown majority by virtue of Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr.'s tie-breaking power. They boasted they would take all the chairmanships for themselves.
But Democrats' smugness subsided when maverick Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr., D-Franklin County, demanded 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 Montgomery County and Charles Colgan of Manassas, offered to step down from chairmanships to resolve the partisan dispute.
Goode handed his chairmanship of the Local Government Committee 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 lot of people have had arms twisted, arms broken,'' said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, 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 C. Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County said the change may not be as great as some expect because the two chambers always have been separate institutions.
``This is a blending process,'' he said, ``and it will be a blending process to the day daisies are growing on my grave.'' MEMO: Related article on page A7.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Sen. Stanley C. Walker
Sen. Yvonne B. Miller
Photo
Sen. Mark L. Earley
Color photos
Sen. Richard J. Holland
Del. William P. Robinson
Del. Jerrauld C. Jones
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB