Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Who’s Got the Power?

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

House of Delegates. Source: Virginia Public Access Project

Who’s got the power? We got the power!
Breaking through the wall, gonna do it all
We don’t quit!
Who’s got the power? We got the power!
— Powerpuff Girls

The Virginia Public Access Project compared the committee assignments of 113 legislators returning to the General Assembly this year and graphed the change between 2018 and 2020 in the number of committees served and the number of bills considered. Unsurprisingly, given the shift in majority power from Republicans to Democrats, Republicans generally lost power and Democrats gained it. The graph above, which depicts changes in the House of Delegates, clearly shows that, overall, Republicans (red dots) serve on fewer committees dealing with fewer bills while Democrats (blue dots) serve on more committees considering more bills.

Here is the comparable graph for the state Senate:

State Senate.

(Visit the VPAP to see an interactive version of these graphs, which display the names of the legislators when you mouse over the dots.)

A couple of anomalies. In the House graph, House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax Station, is the blue dot in the far lower, left-hand corner. She may serve on fewer committees that consider fewer bills, but she’s the speaker. She wields more power than anyone else in the House.

In the second graph, there’s one red dot in the upper right-hand quadrant where legislators have more committees and bills. That’s Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg. He may have lost his position as Senate Majority Leader, but it appears to have survived the re-shuffle of committee assignments just fine, actually gaining a committee assignment in the process.

Biggest winners (by these metrics) in the Senate: Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, and Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomac.

Biggest winners in the House: Chris Hurst, D-Blacksburg, and Kathy Tran, D-Springfield.

Perhaps our General Assembly correspondent Mr. Haner can inform us how meaningful these metrics are as indicators of real power. Should certain committee assignments be weighted more heavily than others?

— JAB

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

11 responses to “Who’s Got the Power?”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    Yes. Of course.

    Oh, which ones? House Approps and Senate Finance have the money. That’s the power. Everybody wants something in the budget and is made to earn it.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      No question that the money committees are where the power is. Long term members such as Dels. Poindexter and Stolle and Sen. McDougle must be feeling very lost and disoriented these days.

      1. Cigarunner Avatar
        Cigarunner

        Del Stolle was defeated in November. Well December when recount was finished.

  2. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    Chris Hurst, huh? Pulled over for driving under the influence last week, he failed the breathalyzer test (recording a .085 which is slightly over the .08 limit). During the dash cam record of the stop Hurst admitted to drinking and also taking adderall earlier in the day. He was not charged and the officer asked that the passenger in the car drive over to a Wal-Mart where they could park and (presumably) sober up. As it turns out, our state constitution forbids arresting General Assembly members during a session so the officer had little choice. Also of note, mixing adderall and alcohol has been shown in research to exacerbate issues of judgement and rational thinking more in combination that when the substances are taken in isolation.

    Hurst made the obligatory apologies for his poor judgement. In fairness, he was barely over the limit and may have tested under the limit by the time the blood test was administered. However, I wonder if the policeman knew Hurst was a delegate and whether that factored into the officer’s decision to issue a warning.

    https://www.nbc12.com/2020/01/29/virginia-delegate-hurst-not-charged-after-registering-blood-alcohol-concentration/

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      well if he had one of those “low number” license plates, the officer probably suspected it.

      I also doubt the outcome would have been any different GOP or Dem.

      and have no doubt a generic schmuck of color would be feeling the power now.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      I think members of the General Assembly should be “privileged from arrest” for petty offences while they are in session. For one thing, it prevents a corrupt governor from using the police to harass his political opponents. It also helps keep a minor offense by an elected official from impeding the progress of a legislative session (I know, I know: WHAT progress, right?).

      They should not, and do not, have complete immunity from arrest, however, and I would support a constitutional amendment that revised Article IV Section 9 to add DUI to the list of exceptions to the crimes for which general assembly members may not be arrested while in session.

      Driving under the influence puts other people’s lives and well-being at serious risk, and no one should have immunity from arrest if they are driving drunk.

    3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      According to the account in the RTD (https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/updated-a-grave-mistake-del-chris-hurst-apologizes-after-dui/article_71d32d1e-6a10-5381-a259-c429c3291609.html), he did not have a special GA license plate and did not identify himself to the officer as a GA member. The statement issued by the town of Christiansburg stated that he was not arrested because he passed three other sobriety tests and had a sober passenger who could drive him home. Also, the breathalyzer test is not admissible in court and, by the time he would have reached a magistrate, the formal admissible test would have likely been at or under the limit. The statement said that the officer did recognize Hurst, but neither he nor the delegate mentioned it during the stop.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        My impression is that DUI stops are pretty fixed. I’ve never heard of
        anyone getting off with a “warning” but perhaps so.

        As to Wayne’s comment. I’d go along with no action taken until after the GA is concluded but then process per the law.

        And if it turns out the Governor was behind it – then have him up on charges also.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    so… all these years the GOP controlled the GA – what would we say is their most significant accomplishments?

    Don’t laugh. There actually were some.

    Like Smart Scale – I don’t see the Dems rolling that back.

    They neutered the SCC and it looks like the Dems are okay with that.

    What else?

  4. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    I think I’d rather have the Powderpuff Girls in charge instead of the corrupt buffoons and power-hungry totalitarians who currently govern [rule?] this Commonwealth…
    😉

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Our job is to elect those who we think best reflect our desires for government.

      That’s our job.

      If we fail at it – then blaming who we selected is just evading our own responsibility.

Leave a Reply

Read More