Judge sidesteps legal issue over Senate control
A judge declined Friday to issue a temporary injunction in a suit brought by a Democratic state senator seeking to block Republicans from seizing control in the evenly divided Virginia Senate.
The suit, brought by Henrico State Sen. Donald McEachin, sought a declaratory judgment that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, is not entitled to vote in certain matters, including organizational matters, that come before the State Senate.
McEachin in a statement said the Senate Democratic caucus “will continue to explore all its options” to resolve the issue, and called on the GOP to “respect the will of the voters and past history.”
“The Senate is evenly divided, 20-20, so committees and responsibilities and power should be divided to reflect that even split, just as the Republicans said in 1996. Even then-Governor Allen spoke to the need for parity under these samecircumstances,” said McEachin, noting the view of Republicans following the 1995 elections that resulted in a 20-20 split. Republican leaders at that time called on Democrats to share power even though then-Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat, could have split any ties in organizational votes in favor of the Democratic caucus.
Poll: Cuccinelli with big early lead in ’13 GOP gubernatorial race
Ken Cuccinelli holds an early 19-point lead in the race for the 2013 Republican Party gubernatorial nomination, according to poll numbers released by Public Policy Polling on Tuesday.
The attorney general leads the lieutenant governor by a 44 percent-to-25 percent margin in the PPP survey of GOP voters. The lead is based largely on Cuccinelli’s big advantage in name recognition (73 percent of GOP have an opinion on Cuccinelli, while just 48 percent have an opinion on Bolling) and a huge gap among Tea Party voters. Cuccinelli holds a 58 percent-to-18 percent lead over Bolling among Tea Party voters in the PPP poll. Read more
Senate Dems file suit to block GOP power grab
Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Donald McEachin filed suit on Monday in Richmond City Circuit Court, on behalf of the Senate Democratic caucus, to stop Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling from breaking an expected tie this January when the State Senate comes back into session and organizes for the next four years.
“The voters elected 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans to the Senate. Yet, in spite of that, the Republicans choose to ignore these results and, instead, claim absolute power and authority,” said McEachin (D-Henrico). “This willingness toignore the evenly divided results of the election is unfair and unacceptable.”
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment acknowledging that Bolling does not have the constitutional right to cast a vote breaking the expected tie about how the Senate organizes. In addition, the lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction preventing Bollingfrom voting on organization until the issue is resolved. Copies of the lawsuit were provided to Lt. Gov. Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
“In Virginia, only an elected member of the Senate can vote on the rules of the Senate. The lieutenant governor was not elected to the Senate,” said McEachin. “Unfortunately, the Republicans have not shown any inclination to work with us to resolve this impasse. In a 20-20 Senate, power should be shared, but instead, the Republicans insist on an arrogant power grab.”
Senate Dems: Share power, or we’re going to court
State Senate Democratic leaders said Friday that they will take legal action if necessary to ensure equal representation on legislative committees in the wake of Election Day results that have Democrats and Republicans each holding 20 seats in the chamber.
On Monday, party leaders took their case to the court of public opinion.
“What we’re asking for from our colleagues is simple fairness. The voters of Virginia obviously voted for a divided Senate,” said Senate Democratic Caucus chair Donald McEachin, laying out the case for the request of Senate Democrats for equal representation in Senate leadership and committee assignments.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, has said since Election Day that he will work with Senate Republican leaders to ensure that the GOP effectively controls the senior chamber.
“Make no mistake about it. There is a Republican majority in the State Senate,” Bolling said after the November elections.
McEachin, an attorney, counters that the state constitutional provision that lays out how each chamber of the General Assembly is to organize itself does not mention the lieutenant governor as part of the Senate.
The only other time in Virginia political history that the State Senate had split representation, following the 1995 state elections, Democrats and Republicans agreed to share power and committee assignments.
The lieutenant governor at the time was a Democrat, Don Beyer. Republican leaders made a similar case to the one being advanced now by Democrats for power-sharing following the 1995 elections.
“I would hope that my Republican colleagues would remember the word they uttered in 1995 and 1996 and remember that if it was fair then, it’s fair now,” McEachin said.
Majority Leader Dick Saslaw conceded the point that the state Constitution is unclear, which is what may precipitate legal action if the two parties cannot come to an agreement.
The state Constitution gives the lieutenant governor the power to break tie votes, “but that’s always been on general legislative matters. It’s never been settled on something like this,” Saslaw said.
Saslaw thinks there could even be an issue going forward on votes involving the state budget and judicial appointments. “It’s not just a matter of this year. It should be settled for all time. That’s the purpose behind this,” Saslaw said.
Senate Dems vow to fight if GOP refuses to share power
The Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus today announced its unanimous opposition to the Senate Republican attempt to claim a Senate majority even though 10 days ago Virginians elected 20 Democratic senators and 20 Republican senators.
The Senate Caucus believes that with a chamber evenly divided between political parties, power should be divided as well.
Sen. Dick Saslaw, unanimously re-elected majority leader by his fellow Democratic senators, said, “Virginians elected 20 senators of each party, and it’s only right the power in the Senate is divided equally. The Republicans are wrong to try and grab power when half the state voted for Democrats. It’s a question of fairness. The Republicans are trying to overrule the will of the people and claim a majority they did not earn.”
Meeting at the Mason Inn and Conference Center in Fairfax during the first day of their caucus retreat, the senators agreed that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling does not have the right to break a tie when it comes to Senate re-organization.
Newly-elected Caucus Chair Donald McEachin said “the Constitution of Virginia is very clear, the organization of the Senate is the prerogative of the elected members of the Senate and Lt. Governor Bolling is not a member of the Senate.”
The only time the Senate was tied at 20-20, after the 1995 state elections, the Republicans and Democrats shared power.
“In 1996, the last time the Senate was deadlocked at 20-20 the precedent for power-sharing was set. We see no reason why it should be different now,” McEachin said. “As George Allen, who was governor of Virginia at that time said of the power sharing pact, ‘This is reflective of the balance and equity that should be accorded the election results.”
GOP gains two in Senate races, takes effective control of senior chamber
It wasn’t exactly a Republican wave, but the GOP did pick up two State Senate seats in Tuesday’s state elections to wrest control of the senior legislative chamber from Democrats.
Bryce Reeves slid past Democratic incumbent Edd Houck at the wire in a tight 17th District race to post an unofficial 86-vote victory in the race that tipped the scales in favor of Republicans. The close margin was within the margin of victory that would trigger a recount of votes. Reeves garnered 50.01 percent of the 45,000 votes cast in the district to Houck’s 49.82 percent.
Earlier in the evening, Republican Bill Stanley had upset Democratic State Sen. Roscoe Reynolds in a close race in the 20th District by a 643-vote margin in a three-way race that saw independent Jeff Evans receive 3,875 votes. Stanley won 46.8 percent of the vote to Reynolds’ 45.5 percent.
The pickups were short of projections heading into Election Day, with some analysts thinking the Republicans could take four or five seats from Democratic incumbents among the 17 seats held by Democrats that GOP candidates were contesting. The two-seat pickup brings the two parties even at 20 members each in the Senate. With Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, breaking ties, Republicans have effective control of the chamber for the first time since losing their outright majority in the 2007 election cycle.
Virginia lands wind-turbine project
Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that Virginia has landed a collaborative project to establish a facility for the testing and certification of large offshore and land-based electricity-producing wind turbines. The project, called Poseidon Atlantic, will be the first such facility in the United States and will help fill a growing need globally for facilities that test and certify wind turbines. The initial phase of the project is to be developed on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in Northampton County.
The Poseidon Atlantic project is a private-sector initiative developed by the companies Real NewEnergy, Fugro and Ecofys, with the support of the Commonwealth, the Virginia Port Authority and the Netherlands government. The proposed facility is intended for full-service testing and certification of existing-and-next generation land-based and offshore wind turbine generators. The project will create 25 direct new jobs within two years. The growth of the offshore wind sector and all of its associated jobs over the long-term could result in major and sustained new job and new industry creation potential over an extended number of years in Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced the project at a dinner for potential stakeholders on Oct. 12.
“The Poseidon Atlantic project has huge potential for Virginia. If this industry takes root and matures, we could create thousands of new jobs in manufacturing, construction, logistics, operations and maintenance activities,” Bolling said. “Many of these jobs are skilled positions with very competitive wages and benefits, and they would produce a sustained and long term economic benefit for Virginia.”
Poseidon Atlantic LLC is a joint-venture between U.S.-based Real NewEnergy and Ecofys, a subsidiary of the Dutch utility, Eneco. Real NewEnergy is a renewable energy technology firm formed to introduce and leverage Dutch renewable energy experience and capabilities in the U.S. Ecofys is the leading sustainable energy consulting firm in the Netherlands and currently operates the largest wind turbine test-and-certification facility in Europe.
The Norfolk office of Dutch-based Fugro will provide engineering services associated with site location and development of the proposed test center. Founded in 1962, Fugro is the world’s leading collector, processor, and interpreter of data related to the earth’s surface, subsurface and waters, and provides advice based on the results to clients in many business sectors. In this capacity, Fugro has been a key partner in the development of more than 100 installed and proposed European offshore wind projects, and has been a key supporter for the development of an offshore wind industry in the U.S.
“The Poseidon Atlantic project perfectly illustrates the shared commitment between the Netherlands and Virginia to harness the power of wind energy. The potential long-term job creation from this initiative will build on the nearly 19,000 Virginia jobs already supported by our economic ties with Virginia,” said Dutch Ambassador Renée Jones-Bos.
