GOP's Compromise Now Democrats' Dilemma
Transportation Is the General Assembly's Must-Fix Problem, but Election-Year Angling Makes Things Complicated

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 21, 2007

RICHMOND -- As they gathered in a basement meeting room in the Commonwealth Park Suites Hotel last month, a handful of Virginia's top Republican lawmakers secretly sought an end to their bitter feud over whether to raise taxes for the state's transportation system.

But another goal remained front and center: to save the Virginia Republican Party.

Shocked by George Allen's loss in last year's U.S. Senate race and fearful of losing their majority in the elections this fall, the top lieutenants in the House of Delegates and Senate put aside years of philosophical differences and personal hostilities during closed-door meetings arranged and hosted by Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R).

The announcement of a deal Thursday is meant to reverse years of bad press and to convince voters that Republicans are part of the solution, not the problem. By agreeing on a multibillion-dollar plan, the six one-time GOP adversaries hoped to shift the pressure for a traffic fix to the Democrats and their leader, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

"The Democrats have long telegraphed that they were going to use a failure to get a transportation proposal as a political tool," McDonnell said Friday. "Now the burden is on them. The question is, do they want to have a political response? Or do they want to get something done?"

For Kaine and his party, the seemingly sudden burst of Republican unity brings with it a serious political dilemma. Which is better? Urging voters to replace a do-nothing Republican General Assembly, or taking part in a transportation solution that helps their adversaries escape blame?

The governor said Friday that he is not interested in using the transportation debate as political leverage. "The best position for everyone to be in is to get something that works," he said. "If we do something that's good for Virginia, everyone will have something to benefit from that."

But it's not that easy for many Democrats, who have labored under GOP rule for the entire decade. They see a tantalizing chance to pick up seats in the House and perhaps even take control of the Senate later this year.

Their initial responses to the GOP plan suggest that many Democrats have mixed feelings.

Republicans "have gotten an absolute dump-truckload earful of 'You didn't get this problem fixed, and I'm going to remember that in November,' " said Del. Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry), a senior House Democrat. "That having been said . . . it's better for Democrats to achieve a viable solution."

'You Have 35 Days'

The first meeting at the Commonwealth Park was tense, according to participants.

The lawmakers munched on cranberry oatmeal cookies as McDonnell offered them a history lesson, first in GOP victories in the 1990s and then on the Republican civil war that erupted in 2001. He showed them newspaper clippings quoting them saying nasty things about one another, including one instance in which a Republican senator called GOP delegates "dumb as rocks."

They sparred for about an hour. On one side were Sens. Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City), Kenneth Stolle (R-Virginia Beach) and Walter A. Stosch (R-Henrico). On the other were Del. M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) and House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem).

Senators described the delegates as always wanting to put politics ahead of policy. The delegates countered that senators were unconcerned with the political impact of their sometimes unpopular tax positions.

"In all fairness, I don't think any of us thought it would work," Griffith said in an interview.

But the exchanges never devolved into a shouting match like the ones that have taken place in the library room of the Appropriations Committee during recent budget negotiations.

By the end of the two-hour meeting, spirits were high, and they scheduled another gathering 10 days later. McDonnell wrapped up the first meeting by suggesting they have a drink to their success. An aide wheeled in a cart with some beer on ice.

But before they left, the attorney general warned them that finding a compromise on transportation would be nearly impossible once the legislative session started in January. There would be too many committee meetings and carping from all sides.

"You have 35 days," McDonnell warned them.

'A Gun to Our Heads'

Finding a compromise was like putting together the pieces to a complicated puzzle.

By early January, the jigsaw was beginning to fall into place. Delegates had agreed to some fee increases. Senators had agreed to some borrowing. Both sides conceded that neither would get everything it wanted. But it seemed like every time one piece stuck, another would fall out. It was driving the lawmakers a bit batty.

"There were lots of moments when I thought it was not going to happen," Griffith said of the deal. "The one thing that didn't ever happen -- no one ever stormed out mad. No one ever said, . . . 'I'm leaving.' "

Chief among the group's concerns were the views of their respective leaders, who had each been invited but had chosen not to attend the negotiations.

The delegates by then included Caucus Chairman Terry Kilgore, twin brother of former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, who lost the 2005 gubernatorial race to Kaine. They regularly informed House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) of their progress -- or lack of it.

Several participants said Howell was skeptical at first. But he has become the proposal's leading cheerleader. The massive legislation bears the speaker's name, a rare honor for any bill.

The Senate was a different story. Finance Chairman John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland) knew about the talks but made it clear early on that he did not like the direction they were going, according to several participants.

McDonnell and his top aide had visited Chichester on Dec. 11 in his 10th-floor General Assembly office, McDonnell said. The powerful senator opposed shifting money from other state services and programs to transportation. Chichester was not present for the deal's announcement and has since criticized the plan.

That has put the three senators in an awkward spot. For years, they and Chichester have been part of a tiny clique that virtually controls the Senate. Along with Sen. William C. Wampler Jr. (R-Bristol), they had become affectionately known as the Gang of Five.

Now, those relationships appear to be strained. Chichester is holding firm to his long-standing principles, while the three Senate negotiators have bowed to the election-year realities of getting a deal.

"If we couldn't solve transportation, I don't know if we deserve to be in the majority," Stolle said. "In Hampton Roads, I feel like we had a gun to our heads.

"Still do."

The Carping Begins

The breakthrough came, according to one participant, the Sunday night before the start of the legislative session Jan. 10.

With three days left, the group once again assembled at the Commonwealth Park at 4 p.m. It was then that they agreed to the basic outline of the plan: It should raise $500 million each year.

And, significantly, they decided to split the difference. Half would come from new fees that would be hard for the House to swallow. And half would come from the general fund, a jealously guarded Senate favorite from which other state services are financed.

Details soon began leaking out.

Commercial landowners got wind of an increased tax rate, and suddenly their lobbyists were bad-mouthing the still ephemeral plan. Conservative lawmakers who had taken no-new-tax pledges vowed never to vote for the plan. And Democrats geared up for a concerted attack on one of the plan's main provisions: the $250 million from the general fund.

"You know, $250 million is like the combined budget of the state police, all of the state's emergency management operations and all of our veterans services," Kaine told reporters Friday.

And before long, local government officials weighed in, urging caution because of concerns about hard-to-understand land-use provisions and a requirement that local elected officials vote to approve the tax and fee increases.

"If this will help us solve the problem, and [Republicans] benefit from it politically, they deserve it," Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said. "But if it is in fact a whole bunch of silent bombs in the fine print, then the retribution will be swift and certain at the polls in Northern Virginia."

In the end, the compromise was born. Howell and the negotiators announced it in a committee room packed with reporters, TV cameras, lobbyists, administration officials and other lawmakers.

Whether it survives opposition from Chichester, the Democrats, local officials and anti-tax conservatives remains to be seen. The bills must make their way through committees in the House and Senate, get passed on the floor of each chamber and pass muster with the Democratic governor.

And it must all happen by the time the General Assembly adjourns Feb. 24.

"We've come a long way, and it shows what you can accomplish if you have people get down and discuss things with each other," Howell said at the news conference. "It's been an all-consuming effort for the three for the House and the three from the Senate. It's been a great team effort from both teams."