A discussion among senators during a committee hearing on legislation that would change teacher's contracts grew testy today, prompting one incensed lawmaker to storm out of the meeting.
Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, took offense to remarks by freshman Sen. Thomas A. Garrett Jr., R-Louisa. Garrett had somewhat brusquely contradicted comments by Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, regarding the pay of Virginia teachers relative to other states.
"I was going to vote against this legislation, but after being lectured by the most junior member of this body, I'm definitely going to vote against it," Lucas told the committee chairman, Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield.
Moments later, Martin halted the hearing to admonish the committee, saying any member has the ability to "express their thoughts...no member has anymore right to speak than another." He said the Senate also has specific rules "as to calling out a member as another did."
That prompted Lucas to rise from her seat, walk toward Martin's seat in the center and throw a copy of her proxy votes for future bills on the table in front of him. She then stormed out of the meeting, only to return at its very end.
It's not the first time Garrett, a former Louisa County commonwealth's attorney who sometimes addresses legislative issues with a cross-examining prosecutorial style, has rubbed his colleagues across the aisle the wrong way.
On Monday, the confident prosecutor rose to speak on behalf of a bill that would require people without voter identification to cast a provisional ballot. Currently voters are allowed to sign a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury, a felony, and then cast a regular ballot.
Garrett likened the current standard to the equivalent of a "pinky swear and a note from mom."
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