The New York Times headline says that the jolly man in the Executive Mansion is finding that back slapping and booze will only get him so far when it comes to getting things done:
…Mr. McAuliffe has had a hard comeuppance, as his gift for persuasion has met a conservative Republican majority in the House of Delegates unmoved by the charm offensive. The regular 60-day legislative session ended in stalemate two weeks ago without a state budget. As a special session begins on Monday with both sides raising the specter of a government shutdown, Republicans charge that the governor, serving in his first elected office, is all schmooze and little substance.
“I think he was under the impression you just come down here, slap everybody on the back, have a few cocktail parties and we’d pass things where we have real differences in philosophy,” said Kirk Cox, the Virginia House majority leader. “I don’t think that’s worked for him.”
In some ways, Richmond has become more like Washington; Republicans and Democrats — who once found a way to reach compromises — are polarized, and gridlock is a looming threat. The governor and Republican leaders offered starkly different assessments of his first months in office.
In an interview, the congenitally upbeat Mr. McAuliffe said, “Most people would say I had a more successful session than any first-term governor.”
But William J. Howell, speaker of the House, is not one of those people. “I’ve never seen, Republican or Democrat, anybody come in with so little an agenda and so little attention to the process,” he said.
Perhaps if he had spread a few Rolex watches around, things might be different.
But they aren’t and now River City is, again, home to the legislative circus. Nothing of substance will happen in the next few days, and later, all the action will occur in the budget conference committee.
And there is one thing to watch for in those talks: the possibility that Senate negotiators will offer to pass a clean budget, without Medicaid expansion. In exchange, House Republicans would have to agree to get rid of the Medicaid reform commission set up last year as part of the deal to pass the transportation tax increase.
The obvious play? With MIRC gone, the power to expand Medicaid would default to the Governor.
House negotiators very likely would not take that bait. However, with both sides determined to play chicken with the state budget, anything could happen.
