McDonnell has not explicitly banned bias in Va. workforce

RICHMOND -- Newly inaugurated Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has not yet issued an executive order barring discrimination in the state workforce, breaking a 36-year tradition by governors of both parties of making a formal statement on the issue one of their first acts in office.

McDonnell was clear during his campaign for governor that he believed his two Democratic predecessors had overstepped the bounds of their executive authority when they included discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in their orders on the issue and that he would not renew their acts.

But McDonnell has never suggested he opposed broader statements about discrimination on grounds that include race, religion and sex. In a 2006 opinion he issued while Virginia's attorney general, he specifically said he found such orders constitutional.

Virginia governors back to Mills E. Godwin Jr., who left office in 1978, have issued a statement prohibiting discrimination on those grounds as either their first or second executive order -- it was order No. 2 for both of the state's last two Republican governors, George F. Allen and James S. Gilmore III.

Federal law prohibits discrimination on those grounds, and McDonnell's office said this week that he will not tolerate bias in his administration. However, a spokeswoman said he is still reviewing whether to formally issue what would be a symbolic executive order on the issue.

"It has always been the Governor's position and policy not to discriminate -- period," said spokeswoman Stacey Johnson in a statement. "On Jan. 16, he took an oath of office to uphold and enforce state and federal laws -- which include protections against discrimination."

"We are currently in the process of reviewing all remaining executive orders," she added.

McDonnell has so far signed two orders, both shortly after taking the oath of office. The first created an economic development commission and the second established a task force on governmental reform. Both were designed to show he was leaping immediately into the dilemma of healing the state's ailing economy and closing its budget shortfall.

The discrimination order poses a difficult choice for McDonnell, a social conservative who tried to play down controversial cultural politics during his campaign in favor of economic issues.

Issuing an order without the language on sexual orientation would highlight its absence. Del. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), the legislature's only openly gay member, said recently he'd prefer to see no order than one he would perceive as divisive that failed to mention sexual orientation.

But issuing no order at all would be a clear departure from past practice in a state with a complicated and emotional history with racial discrimination.

The first governor to sign an order on the topic in 1973 was Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr., who held the executive office during the turmoil of school integration. Holton said this week that he believed his order was an important symbol that Virginia was turning its back on its segregated past.