Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994 TAG: 9401190066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Jerry Kilgore, 32, Allen's nominee for secretary of public safety, kept his composure through the almost hour-long confirmation hearing before two Senate committees.
He was grilled on his views on gun control, on how he would attack drugs and violence, on what he would do about prisons overcrowded with convicts ill-prepared to work after parole, and on how the new administration plans to pay for its solutions.
"I think you have an appalling lack of understanding about the core problem of public safety in Virginia," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County. "You have, I think, absolutely no idea how both past governors and members of the General Assembly have wrestled with solutions to these problems years in and years out.
"It appears to me there will be a large requirement for you for on-the-job training," Gartlan continued. "The urgency of the responsibilities of this position doesn't allow us the luxury of that.
"And I am also concerned that the views you have expressed here on gun control are ones heard only by the National Rifle Association. By putting you in the governor's cabinet, we will put a spokesman for the NRA at [Allen's] right hand," Gartlan said.
Gartlan then voted against sending Kilgore's name on for confirmation by the Senate.
Veteran lawmakers said the harsh questioning and Gartlan's sole vote against confirming a governor's nominee were unprecedented. Coming less than 24 hours after Allen's generally conciliatory maiden speech to the legislature, the questions underscored the prickly relationship between the governor and senior Democrats as the latter struggle for a formula to reverse steady GOP gains in the General Assembly.
Still, Kilgore's ultimate appointment seems assurred. Several other House and Senate Democrats, who voiced similar concerns Tuesday about the appointment, said they would vote for confirmation in deference to Allen.
"If he falls flat on his face, that is a problem the governor will have to face," said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield.
Kilgore, who graduated eight years ago from the College of William and Mary's law school, has been a part-time prosecutor since 1992 in relatively crime-free Scott County, in the state's far southwest. Before that, he spent six years as an assistant U.S. attorney for Western Virginia.
Republicans, several of whom came to Kilgore's defense during the hearing, noted that he brings prosecutorial expertise to the job - something they said has been lacking in the past.
Kilgore calmly took up for himself to the clutch of reporters who cornered him after the hearing. He said he had hired a former prison warden and experienced penal administrator, Fred L. Finkbeiner, as his deputy secretary.
"I feel like I'm qualified," he said. "They're judging me by my age, not my experience. I still look forward to working with them."
Kilgore also noted that his view that Virginia doesn't need further restrictions on gun ownership or possession is his own.
"I am open to discussion with them," he said. "That was my personal view, but I'm here to carry George Allen's views, not my own."
Allen said during the campaign that he wouldn't favor further gun restrictions in Virginia.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB