On Wednesday, photographer Clayton Spangler (top left) of Charleston, W.Va., took a panoramic photo of members and staff of the Virginia Senate before the day’s floor session.
A sure sign General Assembly Democrats are on the same page: They tore one to pieces barely two hours into the legislature’s election-year special session to divvy billions in federal COVID-19 rescue bucks.
With majorities in the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate, you would think Democrats have little difficulty agreeing on the issues that tipped the legislature blue in 2019 for the first time in nearly three decades.
This past Monday, Democrats quickly bogged down over procedure, failing to reach terms on a timetable and agenda for the special session through a so-called procedural resolution.
This was not supposed to happen. Democrats had vowed to avoid a repeat of a similar impasse last August that pushed a special session into November.
There might be a bit of genius to this latest goof up because it allows Democrats to protect a prized perquisite of the General Assembly’s majority party: picking judges.
This might seem a lofty assignment, one guaranteed lawmakers by the Virginia Constitution. Let’s call it what it really is: political patronage — as in, to the victors go the spoils.
Had the House and Senate agreed on a procedural resolution that included a firm date for quitting Richmond and resuming the summer’s principal business — the campaigns for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and control of the House — Democrats risked leaving it to a soon-to-be lame-duck governor, Ralph Northam, to fill judicial vacancies.
