Other General Assembly coverage:
General Assembly adjourns after passing budget
For a list of key bills introduced by legislators from Southwest and Southside or relevant to our region, see our accompanying legislative roundup.
The 2024 regular session of the General Assembly has now gavelled itself into history. Legislators will be back in Richmond on April 17 for the so-called veto session to deal with the bills that Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoes or amends in the 30 days in which he now has to act on bills. On Friday, he acted on 84 of them that had an earlier deadline — signing 64, amending 12 and vetoing eight. None of those vetoes was a surprise — one would have returned Virginia to a Electronic Registration Information Center that he had withdrawn the state from last year, citing concerns over cost and how voter registration information was shared. One bill he signed was something of a surprise, however, which brings us to today’s subject.
Much of this session went about how you’d expect it would with Democratic majorities in both chambers — the General Assembly killed a lot of Republican bills and passed a lot of Democratic ones. Still, we did have some surprises. Here are six of them.
1. No arena deal
I was surprised at how little opposition there was to the arena. The House of Delegates passed the enabling legislation 59-40 (although it should have been 56-43 because three legislators said they unintentionally voted the wrong way). Still, it wasn’t really close. The House later voted 75-24 in favor of a budget that included the arena. Had those bills gotten to the Senate floor, there’s no reason to think the Senate vote would have been any different. They didn’t, though, because state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth and chair of Senate Finance, blocked them.
Youngkin might yet work out an arena deal but, in hockey terms, he’s now on the wrong end of a power play. I’ll confess to being surprised that a deal didn’t happen because the outlines of one seemed so obvious: Democrats (enough of them, anyway) back the arena in return for Youngkin agreeing to sign some Democratic priorities that he otherwise would be inclined to veto. Among them: a minimum wage increase and legalizing retail cannabis. Now those Democratic measures are in jeopardy, and so is the arena.
2. Cannabis doesn’t spark much Republican support
The measure to legalize retail cannabis passed on a near party-line vote. In the House, the only Republican to vote in favor was Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery County. In the Senate, only Sen. Christie New Craig, R-Chesapeake, did. There are, I believe, more Republican votes for retail cannabis out there, but some Republicans object to the social equity provisions in the legislation — they prefer a more free market approach — and others simply saw no reason to support it when they assume the governor will veto it. Of note: The main lobbyist for cannabis interests is a former Republican legislator, Greg Habeeb, who once represented Salem, Craig county and parts of Montgomery and Roanoke counties in the House of Delegates.
The irony here is that cannabis stands to benefit some rural — and Republican-voting — districts because, as I outlined in an earlier column, cannabis would quickly become Virginia’s top cash crop. (That’s based on what has happened in other states.) Had there been more Republican support, there might have been more pressure on the governor to sign the bill. As things stand now, there is none — unless Democrats can make it part of an arena deal, but the arena deal may be too far gone for that.
3. Electronic ‘skill’ games pass by wide margins
In previous sessions, the mood was running against these games, so much so that the legislature had voted to ban them. The legislators involved in that prohibition are now gone. Still, I thought there’d be significant opposition to reversing the ban, but those bills passed by wide margins — 32-8 in the Senate, although the House was a lot closer, with the final vote being 51-45.
When I told him this looked easy, skill games lobbyist Brian Moran — a former legislator and secretary of public safety — laughed. There was a lot of work behind the scenes over the past year in mobilizing support for the games, especially organizing convenience store owners to lobby their legislators.
This was a classic case of the sausage being made. The House and Senate passed different versions, both by wide margins (65-34 in the House, 32-8 in the Senate), so a conference committee of legislators from both chambers had to work out differences. The House bill that went into conference capped the number of games allowed in truck stops at five; the Senate version had a cap of seven. You’d think the logical compromise would be six, right? Clearly, you don’t understand how the legislature works — because the version that emerged, and got passed, upped that number to 10. Likewise, the House capped the number at regular convenience stores at two; the Senate had a limit of three. The legislation that came out of the conference allows four.
We may never know exactly how that happened but one of those conferees was state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, a longtime skill game advocate who has represented Emporia truck stop owner Hermie Sadler in his legal bid to reinstate the games — and whose auto racing team is sponsored by a skill game company. Stanley is also one of the savviest lawyers in the land; if you’re ever in trouble and need a lawyer, he’s the one you want trying to negotiate things in your favor. Here’s but one example.
4. Youngkin signs same-sex marriage bill
Virginia has had same-sex marriage since 2014. That came about through court rulings that predated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2015 that allowed same-sex marriage. However, Virginia has never actually passed a law to allow such unions. This year it did. HB 174 by Del. Rozia Henson, D-Prince William County, passed the House 54-40 (state Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, had the Senate version). Only four Republicans voted in favor: Bob Bloxom of Accomack County, Carrie Coyner of Chesterfield County, David Owen of Goochland, Kim Taylor of Petersburg. It passed the Senate 21-18, with state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, as the only Republican in favor.
This bill was among a tranche of bills that, for procedural reasons, the governor had to act on by Friday. To the surprise of many, Youngkin signed the bill. The governor issued no statement on that, or any of the other bills he signed, but the pro-LGBT rights Equality Virginia group hailed the signing. “Two years into his term, Governor Youngkin has shown leadership and inclusivity, and has finally listened to his constituents with his signing of HB 174,” Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, said in a statement. “This change to the Code is a positive step forward, and shows how effectively LGBTQ+ couples, interracial couples, and our neighbors have been in sharing their stories and experiences relating to marriage in Virginia … Tonight, we honor the couples who never were able to enjoy this right, the currently married couples who can rest easier following this legal update and all those who will be able to get married here in Virginia for generations to come.”
The state’s constitution still contains a provision that bans same-sex marriage — the so-called Marshall-Newman Amendment, after its authors, then-Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas and then-state Sen. Steve Newman, R-Bedford County. That provision has been rendered moot by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, but would come back into force if the high court ever reversed itself. Same-sex marriage advocates hope to start the process next year to remove that, that would require approval both by next year’s General Assembly and the one in 2026, and then a referendum in November 2026. (State constitutional amendments must be approved by two successive legislatures, with an election in between so passage this year would not have sped up that process).
5. Scott appoints Republicans to the tobacco commission
The last time we had a Democratic speaker, she purged multiple Republicans from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission — an economic development group dedicated to former tobacco-growing regions in Southwest and Southside — and installed Democrats whose districts, in some cases, never grew tobacco. New Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, could have done the same, but did not. He did not re-appoint some Republican delegates, but replaced them with other Republican delegates — all from Southwest Virginia. (Cardinal’s Markus Schmidt wrote about this.)
Scott has shown a surprising amount of outreach — he reappointed Republican Paul Nardo as House clerk, he made his famous trip to Southwest Virginia to visit with state Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County. (Cardinal’s Susan Cameron wrote about that.) Scott could have picked a partisan fight here but chose not to. People in Southwest and Southside feel strongly about the Tobacco Commission — this is our money — and reacted poorly the last time around. Scott may never see any direct political benefit from appointing these Republicans, but he has shown, with one simple move, what a savvy legislator he is.
6. A smooth session
Some observers — including yours truly — had wondered whether having so many freshmen legislators would upend the General Assembly by creating a large, restive bloc on each side of the aisle clamoring for things to happen. That didn’t happen. By all accounts, things ran quite smoothly, and Scott prided himself on his legislative efficiency. If you’re a Republican, you might think things ran a little too smoothly for your liking, but that’s not a function of seniority, that’s just what happens when you’re in the minority. Legislators also produced a budget on time, something they haven’t done recently. Again, though, that’s easier to do when the same party controls both chambers. I suspect the governor’s pen may run out of ink as he sends that budget back with amendments. This year’s veto session may be more interesting than usual, but the session that just passed was relatively quiet. The only two real blowups were when Democratic House members advanced an abortion bill by Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford County, to the floor for the sole purpose of trying to force their Republican colleagues into making what for some might have been an uncomfortable vote — and then Lucas blocking the arena.
The former was a one-day story, the latter we’ll be hearing about for years.