Fight to control Senate highlights start of session

The 2012 General Assembly convenes today with a fattened Republican majority in the House of Delegates, an evenly divided Senate and GOP control of the three executive branch elected offices.

Tonight, Gov. Bob McDonnell delivers his State of the Commonwealth address, outlining the legislative ambitions and spending priorities embedded in a two-year,

$85 billion budget.

The success of those priorities, and McDonnell's governing legacy, could well be determined by what happens in the session's opening hours. Republicans will seek to organize the Virginia Senate using the tie-breaking vote of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who presides over the 40-member chamber.

Republican control would mean GOP chairmen and majorities on committees that will decide the fate of legislation — including bills governing firearms, immigration, the right to work law, and abortion — that, since 2008, have passed the House of Delegates but perished in what was a Senate controlled by Democrats.

Bolling has asserted a right to cast a tie-breaking vote on organizing and legislative matters, but not on issues governing final passage of the budget, taxes, election of judges and constitutional amendments.

Democrats contend that with a 20-20 party split, power should be shared. A lawsuit challenging Bolling's authority to cast a tie-breaking vote to organize the chamber is pending in Richmond Circuit Court. Democrats could make a second attempt to seek an injunction against Bolling's authority once he votes to organize the chamber, but might not be able to compel him to appear in court during the legislative session.

Democrats have considered other options involving arcane parliamentary procedural challenges, but party leaders said walking out to deny the chamber a quorum is not one of them.

"We are not going to do the Wisconsin shuffle," said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, referring to the move last year by Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin to leave the state to prevent the state's governor and Republican majority from passing legislation to end collective bargaining for state employees.

"All 20 of us are showing up and going to work," McEachin said of his fellow Senate Democrats. "How things work out will depend on how we respond. We will act accordingly."

Bolling's acknowledgement that he lacks authority to break ties on the budget could also create leverage for Democrats and force Republicans to compromise on legislation or on the organization of some committees.

Senate Democrats, for instance, have signaled that McDonnell's budget would not receive a Democratic vote if his proposal to divert sales tax revenue from public education and social services to transportation maintenance remains in the bill.

On the GOP side, Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, the Republican leader, has assiduously avoided opportunities to comment publicly on the power shakedown. But in an interview last week, Bolling provided a glimpse of what GOP control of the Senate would look like.

"The biggest difference that I think a Republican majority will make in the Senate of Virginia is the different leadership style that we will take compared to the leadership style that Democrats have taken," said Bolling.

"With all due respect to everybody, because all these guys are my friends … there's a big difference in having Senator Norment chair the Courts Committee as opposed having Senator Marsh chair the courts committee," he said, referring to Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, D-Richmond.

"There's a big difference in having Senator Hanger chair the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee than having Senator Ticer chair the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee," he added, referring to Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta and former Sen. Patricia S. Ticer, D- Alexandria, who did not run for re-election last year.

"We have the ability to organize the Senate with a Republican majority, we think that's the best thing for the Senate and that's the reason that's the approach we're taking," Bolling added.

Bolling — who has cast 16 tiebreaking votes in his six years presiding over the Senate — said he'll vote his conscience, "whether I think that issue is a 'yea' or a 'nay.' "

Some of those tie-breaking votes could determine the success of McDonnell's agenda.

"There may be times the governor and I agree on something, there may be times we disagree on something," Bolling said.

"Having said that, I would stress, we are a team."