ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
Virginia's state senators didn't plot against one another, fire dozens of people or grind the wheels of government to a stop Thursday.
As such, they called it nothing short of a historic milestone in state politics.
The General Assembly on Thursday reappointed about four dozen judges from around the state whose terms are expiring. In the Senate, members approved the list unanimously and without discussion.
That wouldn't normally be noteworthy, but the list submitted for consideration this year was signed by members of both political parties - not just the Democrats. Giving Republicans a say in appointing judges was a key compromise when senators divided power in a chamber now represented equally by both parties.
The state Constitution requires 21 votes in the Senate to nominate judges, so neither party has the heft to name judges alone. That means Republicans could have forced some Democratic judges from the bench. But they didn't.
"It is an historic moment, I think, to see bipartisan cooperation on an issue that had been so political in the past," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County.
Some members of the House of Delegates, which also approved the list Thursday, refused to vote as a way to protest the new arrangement. Democrats still rule in the House. But without a guaranteed concurrence from their Senate counterparts, they no longer can control the nomination process.
The true test of the legislature's new bipartisan design will come March 8, when members vote to fill judicial vacancies.
Republicans who negotiated their party's new sway said they never intended to meddle with the sitting judges - only to help choose new ones.
"I guess we can't declare it a complete success quite yet," Gartlan said.
Judges in Western Virginia who were reappointed to six-year terms Thursday were:
Julian Raney, General District Court, Roanoke.
Frank Greenwalt, General District Court, Patrick County.
Patrick Graybeal, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Montgomery County.
Junius Warren, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Martinsville.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB