Senate Democrats are using their fattened majority to shrink the powerful finance committee, auguring a possible showdown with Gov. Bob McDonnell over new taxes to balance the budget.
With a 22-18 edge after the pickup of a Fairfax County seat last week, Democrats have tightened their grip on the 40-member chamber, their last redoubt of power at the statehouse.
By cutting membership on the finance committee from 16 to 15 members yesterday, Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, was thwarted in his bid for the spot of fellow Virginia Beach Republican Kenneth W. Stolle, now that city’s sheriff.
It is the first time in two decades or more that the state’s largest city has not been represented on the finance committee.
Democrats will have a 9-6 edge on finance, increasing the likelihood of a clash with Republican McDonnell and the heftier GOP majority in the House of Delegates over solutions to Virginia’s fiscal crisis.
Democrats are friendly to new taxes; McDonnell and House Republicans oppose them.
Democrats say the committee shuffle—and changes in the membership of other panels—reflect the last time there was a 22-18 break in the Senate. That was in 2001, when Republicans were in charge.
Senate Republican Floor Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City County said the assignments are unfair to his party.
“I am positively disappointed,“ Norment said. “Even if I rail, it’s not going to change a thing.“
New assignments include a seat for Democrat R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, the defeated 2009 candidate for governor, on the influential labor and commerce committee—a prized post, particularly when it comes to raising campaign funds from business.
A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat from Henrico County and a personal-injury lawyer, now is on the courts committee, as is Democrat Chap Petersen of Fairfax, a litigator.
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Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.
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