Del. Bob Purkey (R-82) has introduced bills for 14 years that would allow Virginia a Virginia governor to serve two consecutive terms. Virginia is alone in not allowing its governor to succeed himself. The holdup is that Virginia’s governor is considered powerful, and the legislature is generally unwilling to have such a powerful person run the state for eight years. As a compromise, the current governor, Tim Kaine, and his two immediate predecessors, Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore, have been willing to give up some of that power. Purkey’s offered legislation takes that into consideration:
- HJ568 provides for a two term governor
- HJ569 changes the appointments of the Board of Education. Instead of all nine being appointed by the governor, the House would name 3, the Senate 2 and the governor 4.
- HJ570 combines HJ568 and HJ569
- HJ571 extends the gubernatorial term to six years.
- HJ572 extends the gubernatorial term to 6 years, allocates the Board of Education appointments as per HJ569, authorizes the General Assembly to “nullify or suspend” administrative regulations, and permits the GA to extend its session for any period by a 2/3 vote.
These and other Purkey bills on this topic wind up in the House Privileges and Elections Committe. According to AP writer Bob Lewis (via the Virginian-Pilot), Purkey appeared before that committee today and got a rather chilly response:
Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, pleaded with the House Privileges and Elections Committee during a Friday hearing to afford future governors the right to seek a second consecutive term in exchange for appointments to three key state boards that the executive branch alone now controls.
It’s not enough, said Del. Johnny S. Joannou, D-Portsmouth. It would take a year-round, full-time legislature to provide the proper oversight and check the power a governor could accumulate in two terms, he said.
“There is no other way that we … in the legislature can sit there and have the revenue projections, find out how much money’s being spent in every committee, (have) the oversight like they do in Congress,” Joannou said.
“That’s the reason we have a four-year governor because if you give him eight years, he will bury you, whether he’s good or bad, whether he’s of my party or the other party,” he said.
Well, I’m OK with a full-time legislature, especially if that is what it takes to get the governor a longer term to implement his agenda. As it now stands, the governor takes office and immediately has to try to make changes to a budget left by his predecessor. I don’t recall any governors in recent memory who have been successful at doing that. So really, the governor only has two years to put his stamp on things. (At the very minimum, they should adjust the budget cycle, as discussed here.) This particular issue was briefly discussed at the Bloggers Day and the legislator to whom we asked this question (perhaps one of the other attendees can help me here – I don’t recall which one) agreed.
The legislature needs to make a longer term a reality. The people elect the governor because he has a vision and a plan and then he is virtually prohibited from implementing it.
Personally, I’m leaning towards a single six-year term rather than two four year ones. I’d like to get some work out of the governor, and that’s hard to do when he spends his first term running for his second.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I think what we should do is have a second, summer session for two months from July through August. I fully believe in “limited” govermnet, but not to the point where delegates and senators have to shotgun everything out without giving it its proper time and consideration.
But just as important, and you remember Bolling talking about this, is giving the governor power over the budget for his entire term. that messes things up, too.
BTW, Vivian, you know what country had a single six-year executive right?
The President of the Confederate States of America. Though fortunatley Mr. Davis never reached the end of his elected term.
The legislators’ pay would also have to increase considerably if they were to go full-time.
Vivian, we agree but for all the wrong reasons. I look at it from the voters’ point of view (which is why 6 years without an election is even worse than 4 in my book) and you look at it from a policy perspective. I actually think it’s a good thing to govern with the idea of wanting to be re-elected. You seem to say that elections get in the way of governing, and if that’s your view, I disagree.
I oppose a full-time legislature, mostly because I think it just drags out the process, but also because it would require fundraising during legislative sessions – trouble in my book.
But I do agree with you that the General Assembly should at least pass the reform and let the voters decide in November 2008.
Brian – good policy is good for the voters, right? I did say I’m leaning to a 6 year term, but I haven’t made up my mind. There is a significant downside to a single 6-year term in my book: what if we choose a bad governor? We’re basically stuck.
Perhaps a full-time legislature is not the complete answer. But shoving 3000 bills at them in a short period of time isn’t the answer, either. I hadn’t considered the issue of fundraising, which I agree would be troublesome.
I’m from Texas where the lege meets for 5 months every two years unless called back by the Governor for a special session ie redistricting or school finance. The members create a two year budget, and there’s no term limits for Governors. Members can’t raise money during the session either. I atleast think the reforms should be put in so the legislature has some sort of check on the Gov, but the Gov can be re-elected.
Completely off topic but asmith – I talked to a guy running for the legislature in TX last year. He told me how much they make (which is even worse than in VA) and that he planned to spend $400K on his race!
I assume that’s not all his own money he’ll be spending.
Anyway, Virginia is the most business-friendly state in the country, by a long shot. We do that with a one-term governor and a part-time legislature. I’m not sure changing that is a good idea.