Not content with merely ignoring the Virginia Constitution, the Democrats in the Virginia Senate after an 11-vote razor thin margin to bring the chamber to 20-20 parity, have decided to do something entirely unprecedented in the history of Virginia politics.
Change committee assignments mid-session. From the Virginia Pilot:
Democrats’ recasting of the Senate rules to cement their newfound advantage had Republican senators characterizing the power grab as an unprecedented coup.
GOP leaders tried, without success, a series of moves throughout the day to stop it. Democrats called it fair turnabout to use Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam’s tie-breaking vote to claim majority status in the Senate – just as the GOP did two years ago with the help of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in a Senate split 20-20 between the parties as it is now.
“This is not an argument that ‘you did wrong and now we did wrong.’ This is an argument of ‘you set the precedent and now we are following it,’ ” Sen. Donald McEachin told Republicans.
McEachin, a Henrico County Democrat, was an architect of his party’s strategy.
In addition to claiming majority status, Democrats reshaped the Senate’s 11 standing committees in their favor, enabling them to control the flow of legislation.
They gave the Rules Committee sweeping authority to dispatch Senate bills “substantially amended” after going through the Republican-dominated House of Delegates.
Republicans were particularly incensed about that proposal.
“Democracy in the dark,” Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said.
Of course, Bolling never did get into the who-shot-John of committee appointments. In fact, in a rather lengthy memorandum, Bolling left the organization of the Virginia Senate to the members themselves, citing very specifically (surprise) the Virginia Constitution:
Nothing in Article IV, § 7 suggests that anything other than the normal procedures of the Senate, which, by definition, include the Lieutenant Governor’s power to break ties pursuant to Article V, § 14, are to be employed regarding votes on organizational matters. Accordingly, it is my position that the Lieutenant Governor is fully empowered to cast a vote on organizational matters when there is an equal division in the Senate.
McEachin’s reasoning is specious at best… and the very definition of a coup at worse.
One could use the word outrageous, but we haven’t seen this sort of utter neglect and disregard for the Virginia Constitution in a long, long time. In fact, it may very well be without historical precedent.
Question for the comments section. When one party wholly disregards the rules, traditions, and constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia… what are Virginians to do?
