GOP takeover in Senate having profound effects

The GOP takeover of the Virginia Senate is already having an impact in the General Assembly, and the repercussions appear on the verge of changing the state in ways that extend well beyond the Capitol.

Committees now controlled by Republicans advanced a measure last week to end the one-gun-a-month limit on handgun purchases and backed a requirement that a woman get an ultrasound before having an abortion. Both bills are expected to pass the Republican-dominated House of Delegates and go to Gov. Bob McDonnell.

GOP legislation that would further restrict the rules governing identification that voters must present at the polls is poised to pass the full Senate.

Also on deck are bills to drug test unemployment recipients and codify the ability of private, faith-based adoption services that operate with state money to discriminate against parent applicants who are gay.

In the previous four years, split party control in the General Assembly — Democrats holding the Senate and Republicans holding the House — provided each party with a check to the extremes within its ranks.

But this year, the one-party rule — following a court-challenged vote by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling to organize the Senate for Republicans — has opened the door to potentially significant policy shifts that are deeply troubling to many Democrats.

"We're starting to see Virginia taken into the category of states doing very ill-advised things around guns and reproductive rights," said Sen. David W. Marsden, D-Fairfax.

"I just hope we don't hit laughingstock status."

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Controversial legislation aside, nobody was laughing last week, when disputes over the election of judges froze the Senate for several hours. The seeds of the division were sown in November, when Republicans picked up a net gain of two Senate seats and the chamber split 20-20.

On Jan. 11, Bolling's tiebreaking vote on committee organization gave the GOP the chance to install majorities and chairmanships on all key committees. They resisted the call by Democrats to share power, as in 1996 when the Senate was evenly split. (That year, one renegade Democrat — state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Rocky Mount — forced his party to share power.)

"I think (Republicans) way overreached," said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax. "I don't know how you could draw any other conclusion. It's 20-20 — not 22-20. And I think it's created a fair amount of friction."

The friction generated heat when Republicans pushed a House-drawn GOP congressional redistricting plan through the chamber, where it had been thwarted last year under Democratic control.

The plan, which is being challenged in court, effectively cements current GOP control of eight of Virginia's 11 districts. Critics say it packs too many black voters into one district and dilutes the voting strength of minorities.

And the heat generated fire last week when Democrats resisted a Republican bid to include two proposed new judges — both recently retired former delegates, one Democrat and one Republican — in a bill to re-elect 47 judges.

Neither side would yield and, as a result, the Senate ground to a halt for several hours because the lieutenant governor, presiding over the Senate, is not allowed to break ties on judicial appointments, taxes, constitutional matters or the budget.

Ultimately, the issue was resolved as the prospective new judges' names were removed for inclusion in a later bill. But it took two days and a meeting with McDonnell to smooth things over.

"I think the Senate Democrats are still mildly chagrined from the reorganization of the Senate and perhaps the constitution of some of the committees," said Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, who became majority leader with the Republican takeover.

Norment said he took Democrats' move to block the appointments as a demonstration of their willingness to exercise the authority at their disposal. He said he did not foresee making any changes to the organization of the Senate or how it is run unless "there becomes a deliberate, premeditated effort to obstruct the flow of legislation … but I'm hoping that will not be the case."

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In some cases, the obstacles to Republican legislation may not come from Senate Democrats. Last week, the Senate Education and Health Committee spurned legislation backed by McDonnell to repeal the "Kings Dominion" law under which school districts must open after Labor Day unless they get approval by the State Board of Education.

Gun-rights advocates, gratified by their success when the Senate Courts of Justice Committee backed a bill to repeal the one-gun-a-month law, met resistance on a bill to exempt shotguns and rifles from Virginia's background check system. They are less optimistic they will find success with bills that would allow guns to be carried on college campuses.

Republican-controlled Senate committees have green-lighted several Democratic measures. For example, the courts committee last week supported a bill that would prohibit anyone who is the subject of an emergency protective order from carrying a weapon in the home of the alleged victim.

And on Friday, the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee passed a bill that would allow foster children who opt out of an independent-living program at 18 years old to have 180 days, as opposed to 60 days, to return to the program.

"Ninety-five percent of the issues we work are issues that are resolved by consensus, if they are issues across party lines," said Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, the new chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee and one of the Senate's most conservative members.

"There still are 5 percent of the issues that we disagree on, and that's why we have two parties," he added. "It seems that with the change of control, a lot more of those issues are falling our way this year, but that's just the way the ball bounces."

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Senators from both parties say their divide will not breach the civility that has traditionally inhabited the Senate, no matter who is in control.

"It's amiable," said Saslaw, who mentioned that he shared dinner with Norment and others the night after the flap over the judges. "Look, you leave the politics on the floor, you leave it in the committee room. We're adversaries, not enemies."

Norment called the recent flaps "a couple of hiccups which I think both sides of the aisle fully anticipated."

But that doesn't mean the chamber isn't in for a rocky session, especially as Republican control starts breeding bills that give Democrats pause.

"We're all in uncharted waters," said Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax. "And unfortunately, they're getting to be increasingly hostile waters."

Because of Bolling's tiebreaking power, Senate Democrats can do little about most of the legislation they dislike. But their 20 votes still give them control over whether McDonnell's two-year, $85 billion budget passes.

"They can't do a budget without us," Saslaw said. "That's a lot of leverage, a lot of leverage."