This morning, the John Frederick’s radio show had State Senator Tom Garrett tip the hand as to what folks are thinking in the wake of Glen Sturtevant’s win:
I do hope there will be a leadership change in the caucus. I respect @TommyNorment but he has too much power-@TomGarrettVA22 #JFRS
— John Fredericks (@jfradioshow) November 9, 2015
State Senator Tommy Norment, it appears, will be asked to make a choice: Senate Finance Chair or Senate Majority Leader — but not both.
Steve Albertson over at The Bull Elephant has a bit more on the open-secret-now-public-secret:
The chief complaint about the need for new leadership is that Norment is largely out of touch with the current generation of Senate Republicans. Norment came up with the likes of Russ Potts, Emmett Hanger, John Chichester, Walter Stosch, and John Watkins. These are Senators who are widely unpopular among Virginia conservatives for their penchant to give Senate Democrats a majority on key votes even when the chamber has more members with an ‘R’ after their name. Of these, all but Hanger have retired and been (or will be) replaced with more conservative Senators, swinging the caucus in a new direction.
Watkins was one of the old guard, to be sure. Regardless as to whether or not one believes last Tuesday to be a Phyrric victory for Virginia Republicans or not, the bottom line is that the Senate Republicans have their act together — and this time, with far more conservative members such as Obenshain, Sturtevant, Black, and Garrett.
Of course, when State Senator John Chichester held both Finance and President of the Senate, he was a force to be reckoned with, as a great deal of power flowed through that office — and ended with the 2004 Warner-Chichester tax hike, one of the largest in Virginia history. Could someone — say Sen. Frank Ruff? — slide into the Finance chairmanship? Would that even be acceptable to the conservative wing of the caucus? If not — whom?
Then there is the flip side of this argument: Norment just became the architect of what is arguably the most conservative Virginia State Senate in modern memory. Why would Norment cave into pressure at all? Even if Norment steps away from Finance, he would still wield enormous power as Majority Leader.
This has been a fight in the making for some time now. Of course, what’s more interesting is that Senator Tom Garrett is increasing his political profile just a time when prognosticators — including the late Terrence Boulden — were quite positive that Garrett was gearing up for a potential gubernatorial run.
Should Garrett truly be interested, playing the role of former State Senator Ken Cuccinelli in the State Senate by dragging folks to the right and stirring up the mundane is precisely the right call.
Nevertheless, should Norment choose to dig in and fight for his role as finance chair and majority leader, the pitfalls for future political office remain — not in reputation, but certainly with regards to 2017’s financial sluices.
We have a few more years to figure it out.
