Democrats to sue (maybe) over control of Senate
By Norman Leahy | Monday, November 21st, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaSenate Democrats have decided they really don’t like the idea of ceding power in the Senate and are considering taking the question of whether they actually have to give up anything to court:
“We’re going to see if we can’t have… an outside authority, i.e. the courts, determine who can cast a vote during reorganization,” Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, told reporters this morning. “The constitution is very unclear on that. It mentions that the lieutenant governor can break ties in the event of division but it’s always been on general legislative matters. It’s never been settled on something like this.”
“It’s not just a matter of this year,” he said, “it ought to get settled for all time and that’s the purpose behind this.”
This is the sort of political arcana that enriches lawyers and bewilders constituents. Not that each side won’t have a great deal of fun with it. The RPV has a press release out with a statement from Pat Mullins. It says, in part:
“The election is over. The Democrats lost. Democrats need to join the Republican majority and start the work their constituents are sending them to Richmond to do.”
The Attorney General’s office has received a request for an advisory opinion on this matter, and its decision should be coming soon.
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About the author
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.
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Comments
4 Responses to "Democrats to sue (maybe) over control of Senate"
The Dems are wrong. They had it right in 1996 when they said the L.G. could vote and the Republicans said “No.” It will be an interesting session, with Norment committed to re-opening General Assembly redistricting. We might see those “walk out to deny a quorum” stunts that happened in Wisc. last year.
SV
Are you ever right from first to last. No need to add a thing to that except for one request. BD should start a lottery on which State (or District) the Dems head for and how long they stay out. Bonus points for predicting how long the State Capital is invested with “termites”.
There is no supermajority requirement for a quorum in Virginia. If the Dems want to walk out so be it, then the LG won’t even have to cast a vote.
rj: It requires 21 votes to have a quorum to conduct business in the Virginiia Senate. There’s no dispute that the LG doesn’t count in that instance.
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