Notes from my Trip to Richmond

The day was pretty darn amusing.  I had been watching the live streams of Senate floor meetings from my office over lunches, so I also decided that I wanted to finally get a viewing in of the non-streamed House of Delegate's sessions (for some odd political reason, this is not broadcast over the Internet).

There is a kind of peanut gallery quality to following the sessions on closed circuit television in the viewing room.  Conversations go on unabated, potato chips and comments get thrown with equal abandon when lobbyists disagree on results. The highlight of today's session was a floor debate between David Albo and Robert Hull.  Work there is much more combative and oddly jocular in the House of Delegates than the Senate.  You can see this in the atmosphere both on the floor and in the viewing room.  Today, things hit a climax when Albo defended and Hull challenged the wisdom of allowing wine, beer and spirit samples in bars.  Pretty soon the room demanded that the lobbyist for the Baptist Convention deem Hull an honorary Baptist--no complaints there, though just as quickly the spirit lobbyists were shooting out towards the chamber room door to send in a message clarifying just how many samples would be permitted consumed. At the end of things, the bill passed its third reading in the House, 77-23.

Later in the day, I ended up accompanying a member back to the floor of the House to retrieve something left behind in the chamber earlier.  To my surprise, there is a whole electronic scoreboard with names and indicator lights mounted on the wall that shows how each member votes.  The way it is photographed, observers cannot see the scoreboard in the video shown in the viewing rooms, so they don't see how each member votes. Of course, most of the public never sees this, so I wonder how many folks leave unaware of that every member's voting record is actually visible within the chamber.

The committee meetings were interesting, since they have a much more focused orientation.  Oddly, the Senate Finance Transportation subcommittee did not convene.  Between meetings, I was told about how many folks are upset at Republican Tim Hugo over the recent dustup concerning the sales tax to permanently fund Metro.  Apparently, his "good" vote was a bit disingenuous.  When the affair first came up in Subcommittee, apparently Hugo was widely witnessed verbally voting "yea" for its dismissal, then changing sides when parliamentary procedures called for a manual count.  Later, when the matter reappeared in the full committee, Hugo quietly disapeared just before its consideration.  He was not found until later that day posting his favorable vote--after it became clear that the matter was already lost.  Hearing this from several seasoned transportation observers--who specifically requested mention of these incidents--fairly shocked me.

Overall, the day was certainly quite inspiring.  I wish I had traveled earlier in the session, but this was certainly fun. Work down there at this time of season is moving at a frantic pace as folks cram to finish everything by March 11.  Politicians run around with several pieces on their plates and constituents to serve--and always keep their cool.  I don't know how they do it. Nevertheless, the mood is upbeat.  There is a real vibe that, regardless of the partisan acrimony, this year we seem to be creating historic improvements to transportation.  It's left me exhausted, but rather inspired--and thankful to all the members and staff that showed me such extraordinary courtesy and hospitality. 

Errata:  I was mistaken and misidentified the participants in the floor debate over alchohol samples.  It was between Albo and Hull, as corrected above. Pardon my mistakes.

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