The GOP Senate’s course, and all those open Finance committee seats

Virginia’s Senate Republicans have set about making themselves look like the majority party by selecting leaders and making known how they intend to select committee chairmen. From a press release on these matters, we learn that:

In addition to indicating that seniority would be the basis for determining who will chair the Senate’s eleven standing committees, Senators Steve D. Newman (R-Bedford County) and Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) declared their support for a leadership team that led by Senators Norment, Ryan T. McDougle (R-Hanover County) and Newman to lead the Caucus as Majority Leader, Caucus Chairman and Vice Caucus Chairman, respectively.

Newman will take over the Transportation committee’s center seat, stating that “I will be ideally positioned to shepherd the long overdue reforms Republicans will be advancing.”

And owing to their choice of seniority for chairmanships, it means Walter Stosch will head Finance (which ought to be extremely interesting for those who recall the bloody tax fights of 2004), Steve Martin will chair Education and Health (a boon for social conservatives), Tommy Norment will lead the Courts of Justice committee (sure to bring howls from some quarters, though he might be able to take Rules, instead). And one does have to wonder whether Sen. Obenshain will take over the Privileges and Elections committee slot from Janet “let them eat cake” Howell.

But let’s go back to the Finance committee for a moment.

It’s the Senate’s powerhouse. It’s also been where many good conservative ideas (such as school choice) have gone to die. Democrats stacked the committee 9-6 in their favor. Assuming Republicans are successful in pressing their claims to majority status, they could shift that balance to 8-7 Republican, adding two members.

But there’s a catch: Republicans William Wampler and Fred Quayle aren’t returning next session. So there are, potentially, four open GOP seats on this critical committee waiting to be assigned.

Who gets those seats will tell us a great deal about what course the GOP Senate hopes to chart over the next four years.

Let’s hope it’s not back to the future.

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About the author

Norman Leahy

Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.