ODU Alumni GA reception: talking to the legislators

As I have in prior years, I attended the OLD Alumni Association General Assembly reception last night. Typically this event is a little earlier in the session but this year’s timing allowed an opportunity to talk to our elected representatives about bills that have either passed or failed, as opposed to lobbying them on behalf of certain bills. While I chatted briefly with the Democrats present, it was the Republicans that I wanted to talk to the most. One Republican I tried to get to – Del. Terrie Suit – was in and out of there too fast. I guess I’ll have to catch her later. I’d like to hear for myself why her subcommittee killed the bipartisan redistricting bill.

This session has been marked by rank partisanship, both in the House and the Senate. I am reminded of a comment made to me during an earlier GA trip in which someone said “Kaine spent $2 million to turn the Senate into the House.” I think the voting as well as the re-establishment of the Joint Republican Caucus bears this out. Sometimes, though, the separation between House Republicans and Senate Republicans continues. Take the homestead exemption, which sailed through the House but failed in the Senate.

I talked to a Republican Senator who voted against the homestead exemption. His reason? The bill was “badly flawed.” When I told a Republican delegate of the Senator’s comments, he said “horsesh*t” and went on about how the business lobby got to the Senators. I asked him if there was any way he and other Republicans in the House could put pressure on their Senate colleagues and he said no.

I talked to another Republican delegate about the payday lending bills. One version – the superior one, in my opinion – has passed the House, another version has passed the Senate. This delegate said the ball is in the court of Senate Majority leader Dick Saslaw, as this article says. The comment I got from this delegate was not to expect much. Unfortunately, the article bears that out:

Saslaw told the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor that he was leaning toward not appointing conferees from the House and Senate to work out the details on the bills.

Again, the reason given here was the lobbying by the business community, particularly payday lenders.

So much for doing the people’s business and representing their interests.

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I also got a chance to chat with outgoing ODU President Roseann Runte. I thanked her for bringing football to ODU and mentioned that it would not have ever happened without her. She smiled and told me that, upon reflection, I was right, it would have never happened. I really hate to see her leave. She has been such a tremendous asset to ODU and the community.

Kudos to the ODU Alumni Association for putting on this event.