Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312210236
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray L. Garland
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The state Senate, which wasn'tnot on the ballot last month, is divided betweenhas 22 Democrats and 18 Republicans. With Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, fresh from his own victory, presiding and able to cast tie-breaking votes, Democrats are still in firm control.of the upper house.
With the voting power of a state senator equal to 2.5 delegates, the party division in the House of Delegates is actuallycloser. Republicans held all their 41 seats they hadand gained six previouslyheld by Democrats. The division ofThe new House will behave 52 Democrats and 47 Republicans, plus the chamber's traditionalone independent, conservative Del. Lacey Putney of Bedford.
Previous Republican governors - Linwood Holton, Mills Godwin (second term) and John Dalton - faced insurmountable Democratic majorities in both houses, and had to walk on eggshells to avoid mobilizing those numbers against them. But the Democrats of that era were an entirely different breed of cata different breed from those who warily await Allen's arrival.
Most Democrats of that time considered themselves as conservative, if not more so, than their Republican colleagues. They regarded the liberals who were then taking over their own party with far more fear and loathing than they reserved for Republicans, whom they were coming to see as potential blood brothers.
The philosophical division in the legislature now is more like that in Congress: partisan, conservative Republicans vs. partisan, liberal Democrats.
Considering the stunning size of Allen's victory, and with money still tight, Democrats are likely to hold their fire during the 1994 session. But the mixture of a narrow and nervous Democratic majority, and a Republican governor anxious to help his party, in every way he can,is bound to produce fireworks as we get closer to the 1995 elections near..
Democratic leaders like House Speaker Tom Moss, Del. Dick Cranwell and Sen. Hunter Andrews have spent their entire political lives enjoying the sweet perquisites of majority power, and won't go quietly. A proper strategy of opposition has yet to suggest itself to them, but they know that more political parties have been saved by the mistakes of their opponents than by the efficacy of their own policies.
Allen also has a difficult hand to play. In Moss, Cranwell and Andrews, he has the potential of wily and resourceful opponents long accustomed to running the assembly to suit themselves. And hisAllen's own legislative bench is a bit thin of heavy hitters by reason of the GOP's immemorial minority status. There's also the traditional midterm swing against the party in power to be considered. Republicans made faint and halting progress in gaining assembly seats during their previous stints of gubernatorial power.
Allen does go in with certain advantages, however. For one thing, it's almost inconceivable that any gubernatorial veto won't be sustained. That gives him a legislative power at least equal to the Democratic majority. And far more than previous Republican governors, Allen has signaled his intent to make party building a top priority.
Long out of power and shamefully shortchanged in the assembly for decades, Republicans deserve as much. But there are obvious dangers in a perception of high-handedness - as Democrats, viewing the hash that Gov. Douglas Wilder has left them, can testify.
The best politics is always the best governance. Allen is providing convincing evidence that when he pulled ahead of Mary Sue Terry in the opinion polls, he spared time to think about what he would do if the gods smiled on his hopes. From a distance, at least, the transition has seemed crisp and coherent.Old Richmond hands like Otis Brown and Walter Craigie have joined with Allen's young staffers to move things right along.
Eyebrows were certainly raised by Allen's demand that GOP state chairman Pat McSweeney vacate the office to which he was elected for a four-year term by the party's 1992 convention, and by his recent form letter asking for the resignations of numerous state employees who thought they held nonpolitical career jobs.
The quarrel with McSweeney is, apparently, deeply personal. As such, it is the chairman who must yield. It's customary for governors and presidents to have party chairmen in whom they repose a high degree of trust.
Many of those 450 midlevel state employees who got Allen's letter can probably expect to get their old jobs back, or something else, and it would be proper that they do. If not, protracted litigation is likely. But after 12 years of total Democratic control of state government, it is also proper for Allen to convey a strong message of new leadership, firmly in charge.
Those leaping to a charge of excessive partisanship should reflect upon Allen's appointments to the state's top education posts. In tapping Dean Beverly Sgro of Virginia Tech for secretary of education, and Henrico schools chief William Bosher as state superintendent of public instruction, he has shown a preference for solid professional credentials over political affiliation.
Allen appears to be profiting from the examples of George Bush and Bill Clinton in trying to present the image of a chief executive who can't be easily rolled. Note his prompt refusal to bite on blandishments for a fresh round of highway-user taxes. Given the short time he will be allowed to make his mark, this is as it should be.
\ Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB