UPDATE: Senate resumes, will take up judges on Thursday

UPDATE:

After nearly two hours, the Senate was able to resume its calendar without resolving its dispute over the election of judges when the House of Delegates and the Senate agreed to postpone consideration of the legislation until Thursday.

The decision to postpone followed another interrogatory between Senate party leaders Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax and Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City.

 "Is this a judicial election issue, or is this a bruised feeling and political ego question," Norment asked Saslaw, indirectly referencing the GOP takeover of the Senate.

 "I don't get into the motives of what you all do and you ought not to be getting into the motives of what we all do," Saslaw responded, saying Demcorats were prepared to re-elect 47  judges Tuesday, but not any new judges.

 While postponing the issue to Thursday allowed the Senate to continue with its calendar, it did not necessarily mean the time will bring a resolution to the dispute.

 "We typically do incumbent judges separate from new judges," said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico. He said that despite being friends with both new prospective judges, former Dels. Clay Athey and Clarence "Bud" Phillips, "I would like to look at all the new judges and make sure we're filling vacancies that are needed.

"We need to look at all the nnew judges to make sure thay are being spread across the state appropriately," McEachin added.

 But the senator did not deny the political subtext of the judicial election flap that stymied the Senate, and could do so again on Thursday.

 "You saw it with congressional redistricting, you saw it with the organization of the Senate and now you see it with the election of judges," McEachin. "The Republicans are saying basically 'it's our way or the highway.' And right now we're on the highway."

(This has been a breaking news update.)

The contentious power struggle between Republicans and Democrats in an evenly divided Virginia Senate boiled over today in a dispute over the election of judges, leading to a stalemate that has forced the chamber to shut down and recess.

At issue is the election of two judges in the group of judges who were new appointments to the bench.

Senate Democrats said they informed their Republican colleagues that they were willing to vote for the re-election of all the incumbent judges included in House Joint Resolution 246, but wanted to hold off on the appointment of the new judges.

Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said Senate Republicans had indicated this morning that they were willing to proceed in that way. But then things changed, and Republicans insisted on having a vote on all the judges.

Democrats stood firm -- and Republicans refused to remove the names of the new judges, former Dels. Clay Athey and Clarence "Bud" Phillips. Because each party has 20 members -- and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is not authorized to break a tie vote on the election of judges -- the issue became an impasse played out in pointed floor speeches.

Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr. R-James City, called Democrats "obstructionists." And Saslaw countered that GOP intransigence, not the Senate Democrats, were holding up the business of the people.

"As far as holding up the Senate we are no more guilty than they are," said Saslaw. "We announced for days what our situation is ... Just for two names they're willing to shut the entire General Assembly down, and the careers of a lot of judges, just to prove they can keep those two names in there."

Because the Senate was operating under suspended rules to elect the judges, it could not leave the matter to take up other business, so the only alternative was to recess. The chamber is supposed to come back into session at 3 p.m.

If it does not resolve the judges issue, the Senate could recess for up to three days before being required to come back to the session. At that time it could recess again for three days, but in order to proceed to other business it would have to resolve the judges issue, or must get 27 votes to resume its normal proceedings.

The partisan dispute was the first time the chamber has had to halt proceedings since Republicans took power this session. But it might not be the last.

Bolling's tiebreaking status enabled Republicans to take control of committees and committee chairmanships for the first time in four years.

The realignment has seen Democratic senators dumped from committees and sizable majorities created on committees likely to speed through conservative legislation that previously struggled under Democratic control.

Among the issues already fast-tracked was a redrawing of the state's 11 congressional districts to effectively preserve the 8-3 GOP majority.

Democrats have signaled their intention to exercise their limited power to block budget initiatives and other proposals they see as hostile to working people, education and the social safety net.