As the budget-making drama unfolds in the General Assembly, we’re seeing a very different political dynamic at work. In contrast to past years, in which Republicans tore themselves to shreds, Elephant Clan senators and delegates appear to be acting with common purpose. The party conceivably could emerge stronger than when Elephants ruled the chamber under the leadership of nominal Republican John Chichester.
The evidence for change can be seen in what Tyler Whitley and Jeff Schapiro are billing in today’s Times-Dispatch as “a revolt” of the state Senate’s Republican minority. In a departure from the Senate’s traditional “bipartisan comity,” they write, seven Republicans on the 16-member Senate Finance Committee opposed the Democrats’ proposed revisions to the two-year, $78 billion budget submitted by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
In contrast to previous years, in which a Chichester-dominated Republican caucus warred with the Republican House caucus, Elephant Clan senators are aligning themselves closely this year with their counterparts in the House. Arguably, Republicans have as much power now as when they supposedly controlled both chambers. As Whitley/Schapiro paraphrases Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William: Without bipartisan backing for the Senate version of the budget, the Dems will have little leverage against House negotiators in cobbling a compromise budget.
Most interesting is the change in Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, once an ally of Chichester and, like him, a frequent advocate of higher taxes. Now Wampler maintains that the state should cut state agency budgets by six percent instead of raiding the Rainy Day fund and expanding the pre-K program. Chastened by conservative unrest during last year’s primaries and freed from the Rasputin-like influence of Chichester, Republican senators appear to be taking up the banner of fiscal conservatism.
The result of this realignment could be the emergence of the Elephant Clan as a genuine spend-less, tax-less party. But the Republicans have a long road to travel before than can rightfully claim that mantle. Until they repudiate the shyster-like mechanisms for raising new transportation funds that they enacted last year — increasing a wide variety of taxes, fees and fines by small amounts in obscure places in the hope that no one would really notice — they won’t deserve to be taken seriously.
Hiking the gas tax, favored by Senate Democrats, is a far preferable mechanism for raising revenue. The tax is easy to administer, it is transparent, and it encourages people to drive less, thus incrementally reducing the demand for additional improvements. Only when Republicans fully embrace the principles of tax transparency, efficiency and user-pays, will I believe they’ve had a genuine change of heart.
Update: Seth McLaughlin confirms this analysis in today’s Washington Times.
It’s no longer House Republicans versus Senate Republicans. It’s Republicans versus Democrats. “The dynamics are different now,” J. Scott Leake, spokesman for Senate Republicans, told The Washington Times. “You have a divided Senate and united House.”