Politics was fun when Leo Wardrup was around. Leo was elected Delegate in 1991 and served for 16 years and I don’t think he ever went through an election cycle without a challenger.
He got on the Democrats’ last nerve. He was a master at a biting sound bite. I remember him debating opponents on Joel Rubin’s old tv show and as the incumbent, he was always on the offense. In 8 minutes, he’d have every viewer of both parties thinking the Democrats nominated some schlep who knew nothing about legislation beyond what they memorized.
Leo knew his stuff. The words no delegate wanted to hear from Leo is “Will the gentleman yield for a question?” Leo read the bills, forward and backward and knew every flaw of every bill. If he liked you, he chatted with you ahead of time and you could prepare a floor amendment. If he didn’t, you had a long day on the floor.
But Leo knew how to have fun. The Virginian-Pilot attacked him without fail, and I am pretty sure they never came close to endorsing him.
What did Leo do? Leo patroned bills enacting a “Newspaper tax” to fund a “Newspapers Environmental Fund” so that newspapers could pay for all the space they were taking up in local landfills.
And he was one of the first people to take me aside when I was thinking of making politics a career and he shattered a few myths and told me more than a few truths. He always said campaigns ought to be fun, and no one outcampaigned Leo Wardrup. Best door knocker I had ever seen.
Leo represented a blue-collar swing district and got more than his share of Democrat votes because of his military background and the bluntness that came with it. Voters knew Leo would tell them the facts, whether they were pleasant or not.
Everyone in Virginia Beach politics from the 90s onward has a Leo story. I have a few, and one was when I was sitting in his office, learning from the master, and he asked me if I wanted to hear him make a Delegate cry. He picked up the phone and told a certain Delegate that their bill had no committee support and recommended the patron either pull it or start calling committee members to try and win their support back. The tears took mere minutes, if that.
Then we sat and waited for the Delegate to call back shouting names at Leo because the bill had unanimous bipartisan support the whole time.
Leo enjoyed politics and never took it too seriously. We do this because it’s fun, he’d say. But with that humor came a mastery of parliamentary procedure and legislation, from the budget to the tiniest resolution.
Leo Wardrup passed away last week, leaving behind a legacy as unique as you’ll ever find in Virginia. Although I wish we had ten of him, I fear that he was one of a kind, and there won’t be another. But I’m pretty lucky to have known him and learned from him, and I’ll miss him.
