After elections, Lt. Gov. Bolling poised for more powerful role

RICHMOND — On Monday, Bill Bolling held a part-time, largely ceremonial post that paid him $36,000 a year.

On Tuesday, Bolling’s job became one of the most important in the state.

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Virginia’s GOP lieutenant governor is the reason his party will lead the state Senate after last week’s elections left the chamber evenly split between Republican and Democratic legislators.

Bolling will wield the gavel in the Senate and cast the deciding ballot in any tie, and it is that power that will give Republicans control of the chamber’s floor sessions, committees and bills.

“He’s the most powerful man in Virginia,’’ Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) quipped at a news conference last week.

And the state’s Republicans are now in a remarkably powerful position. For only the second time since the Civil War, Republicans now control both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor’s mansion.

In an interview, Bolling credited his party’s focus on results with its showing in the election. “If we do that effectively, then the environment will stay positive,” he said. “But if we don’t . . . the pendulum could swing back to the other side just as quickly.’’

Bolling, an insurance executive with a Southern twang, has made no secret of his desire to succeed McDonnell in 2014. His elevated role could help those aspirations but could hurt them, too. Certainly, it will raise Bollings’s profile — and perhaps take him out of the shadow of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) — but the bigger platform and the decisive role in key Senate votes could make him a target, as well.

“It’s good and bad,’’ said Anthony Bedell, chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee. “The good is he’s going to have a higher profile. The bad is he’s going to have a higher profile.’’

May face some hard votes

First elected when Democrat Timothy M. Kaine won the governorship in 2005, Bolling was reelected to the No. 2 job in 2009, alongside McDonnell, who was elected governor.

Since then, Bolling, 54, has been a key adviser and emissary for McDonnell, serving as the state’s chief jobs creation officer and stressing kitchen-table issues, including the economy, transportation and higher education.

The legislature’s new Republican majority will undoubtedly help the administration pass proposals but will also force Bolling to take sides on hot-button issues, such as gun rights, immigration and abortion — issues Bolling has largely sidestepped but will be pushed on by a growing conservative faction of the party.

“As a tie breaker, he may have to take some hard votes,’’ said House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong, a Democrat from Southside who is considering a run for governor in 2013. “It will strengthen him for the nomination, but it will make it harder in a general election.’’

Bolling, a self-described fiscal and social conservative, dismissed any pressure in casting controversial votes, and he said Republicans would continue to work on the same issues they have been, primarily relating to the economy.

“Our focus is going to remain fixed on the core issues that the people of Virginia care about,’’ Bolling said. “We will just have to deal with other initiatives that might come out of the legislature on a case-by-case basis.’’