THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996              TAG: 9601300329
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Medium:   59 lines

BILL WOULD REVIVE FAIR-CAMPAIGN PANEL IN LONG DEBATE, PARTIES DISAGREE WHETHER THE FAIRFAX COMMISSION WOULD BE EFFECTIVE.

Partisanship reared its head in the House of Delegates Monday as lawmakers debated committee assignments and misleading campaign rhetoric.

The House devoted 90 minutes - its longest debate this year - to legislation encouraging Fairfax County to reactivate its ``fair campaign practices commission.''

Democrats said the Fairfax commission, if successful, could prove a statewide model for holding candidates accountable when they sling distorted and misleading charges.

But some Fairfax Republicans replied that the revamped commission would be no more effective than a similar panel in the late 1970s, which proved to be a partisan weapon wielded by Democrats.

``It has not worked, and I don't think it will work in the future,'' said Del. Jay O'Brien, R-Fairfax.

Under the bill, Republicans and Democrats would get two seats each and work to agree on a fifth, tie-breaking member. In case of a stalemate, the fifth member would be chosen by the chief circuit judge.

Republicans say the system invites partisan mischief because Democratic lawmakers have had exclusive control over judicial appointments.

O'Brien said that disputes in political campaigns should be played out in the court of public opinion, not in some artificial panel that could have its own agenda.

Despite GOP protests, the House tentatively approved the bill, 77 to 21. The vote, however, may prove moot. If the bill were to become law, Fairfax Republicans could refuse to participate. Republicans still smart over a ``nonpartisan'' commission in the late 1970s in which the swing vote was Leslie Byrne, head of the local League of Women Voters and later a Democratic delegate and congresswoman.

``Everyone agrees on the platitude of resolving your problems to an impartial group,'' O'Brien said in an interview, ``but the experience in Fairfax is that is not the way it works out.''

Earlier in the day, the partisan sparks flew over a GOP proposal to give each party proportional representation on House committees. Republicans complain that even though their numbers nearly equal Democrats, they have only four of 22 seats on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

``The time of one party dictating everything because they have a few more seats should come to an end,'' declared Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.

House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, replied that locking the House into a partisan formula could deprive some regions of a voice on certain committees.

``Are you doing something good for the citizens of the commonwealth, or are you further politicizing the process?'' he asked.

Democrats beat back the GOP plan on a largely party-line vote.

KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB