Senate Leaders to Mirror Va.'s Evolution

RICHMOND -- When the state Senate convenes in January, its leaders will reflect a new Virginia.

For the first time, an overwhelming number of powerful committees will be run by women and African Americans, all representing Northern Virginia and other growing urban areas in a legislature long dominated by white men representing rural interests.

"The Senate in Virginia has always been the ultimate old boys' club," said Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath). "Now the Senate in Virginia looks like Virginia."

This year, the chairmen of the Senate's 11 permanent committees are white men, and more than half represent rural areas in central and southwest Virginia.

But starting in January, they will include seven women and four African Americans, three of them women. There will be only three white men. And all the chairmen will represent Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond, according to several senators familiar with a closed-door vote of the Democratic caucus that took place this weekend.

The changes reflect a dramatic power shift in a once predominantly rural state where jobs in farming, mining and manufacturing have given way to jobs in service, retail, technology and telecommunications.

Although the House of Delegates has several rural Republicans in the leadership, many legislators believe the shift in the Senate will mean a greater focus on roads and transit, growth controls, crime and economic development.

The divided General Assembly will meet Jan. 9 for 60 days to pass a two-year budget. Senate Democrats will promote an agenda that includes establishing a pre-kindergarten program proposed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D); overhauling mental health laws after the Virginia Tech shooting; changing or repealing the costly, controversial bad-driver fees; and fending off attempts by Republicans to curb services to illegal immigrants.

Democrats, who took a 21 to 19 majority in the Senate in the Nov. 6 election, choose chairmen primarily the traditional way: by looking at who has served on each committee the longest. That system does not favor representatives of rural areas, particularly in southwest Virginia. Some senators objected to the lack of rural representation, but seniority prevailed.

"The shift in political environment is just catching up with the shift in population and jobs," said Stephen S. Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

Starting about 1970, the population began to move from rural areas in southern Virginia along the North Carolina and Kentucky borders to more urban areas where jobs were being created. That included Northern Virginia, where companies began receiving millions of dollars in contracts from the federal government.

As a result, the population in Northern Virginia has more than doubled since 1970, and the Hampton Roads and Richmond areas also have grown dramatically. Those three areas are now home to two-thirds of the state's population.