V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, S
ummer
2014
7
A Political Upheaval,
Starting In Russell County
By Ed Lynch
As I observed Virginia Republicans
gathering in Roanoke for their state
convention in early June, I found good
reasons for the gathered GOP faithful to be
somber. While the national trends favored
the Republicans, Virginia Democrats had
swept the 2013 elections, giving them control
of every statewide office, including both
U.S. Senate seats. Incumbent Senator Mark
Warner was on nobody’s list of vulnerable
Senators in 2014.
At the same time, the Republican-dominated House of Delegates
was locked in a bitter struggle with Governor Terry McAuliffe over
committing state funds to an expansion of Medicaid. The expansion
would mean a
de facto
acceptance of the Affordable Care Act (or
Obamacare). In most cases when legislators attempt to win public
relations battles with governors, the governors win. Nothing less than
the state budget was at stake, with prospects for a statewide government
shutdown looming less than a month from the GOP Convention.
Politically, a shutdown could be just as damaging to Virginia
Republicans as the 2013 partial federal government shutdown had been
to their national counterparts.
So Iwas surprisedwhen I spokewith a veryupbeat seniorRepublican
State Senator at a pre-Convention reception. I had been asking delegates
about the Medicaid fight, and heard nothing but apprehension about
the political fallout of a government shutdown. I brought some of this
anxiety to the Senator, and asked if the Republican caucus had a “Plan
B,” in case McAuliffe called their bluff on the budget. He responded
with a knowing smile, almost a smirk, and advised me to “Wait a few
days. I think you’ll see some interesting (sic) developments.”
Rarely has such a prediction come true more quickly or more
dramatically. Less than 48 hours after my conversation with the Senator,
one of his colleagues, Democrat Phil Puckett of Russell County,
announced his resignation. With the General Assembly’s upper body
divided 20-20, the Democrats had control with the tie-breaking vote of
Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam. But with Puckett gone, control
went to the GOP. In the blink of an eye, a major source of McAuliffe’s
leverage disappeared. The Governor had counted on deadlock between
the two chambers causing a shutdown, an outcome he fully planned to
blame on the Republican House.
But with the newly-Republican Senate poised to pass a budget,
without the funds demanded by the Governor to expand Medicaid,
McAuliffe suddenly faced the responsibility of shutting down the
state government all by himself, with political consequences that were
impossible to calculate ahead of time. The Governor seemed genuinely
surprised by Puckett’s decision, and told the media he was “deeply
disappointed.”
Other Democrats went far beyond “disappointed” with their
reactions. Some of Puckett’s colleagues accused him of selling his
Senate seat in a backroom deal with Republicans, in return for a
judgeship for his daughter and a state tobacco commission job for
himself. The Democrat-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington (CREW) went so far as to name Puckett “Scoundrel of
the Month.” Some legislators demanded an investigation by the FBI.
Even with Puckett’s resignation, Governor McAuliffe still had an
opportunity to make a deal and save face. The Virginia Senate is one
of the last bastions of moderate Republicans in the Commonwealth, so
McAuliffe had realistic hopes of picking off a Republican Senator or
two, persuading them to insist on the additional Medicaid funding, thus
shifting the blame for a deadlock back onto the House Republicans.
In a remarkable and unexpected show of unity, however, the 20
Republican Senators voted to accept the House budget, with some
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revisions. Flexing their new legislative muscles, Senate Republicans
added an amendment by William Stanley (R-Moneta) that not only
withheld new budget funds for Medicaid, but barred the Governor
from spending
any
state funds on Medicaid expansion. Since 69 of
100 Delegates are Republican, passage of the revised budget was a
foregone conclusion in the House, and the budget bill was delivered to
the Governor on Sunday, June 15. (More accurately, it was delivered to
See
A Political Upheaval
, continued on page 8
