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By JOHN GOOLRICK
Rappahannock News Special Writer
In a book he wrote a few years ago Mary Washington College Professor Lewis P. Fickett Jr., an astute observer, noted that in the Virginia General Assembly those who “play ball with the power elite — if they don’t oppose main planks in the program or vote against the power elite on the floor on key votes —. . .are humanely treated.”
As a member of the House of Delegates for eight years, 1974-82, Prof. Fickett had a close-up and personal opportunity to view the state legislature and how it works; or perhaps, how it used to work.
In the 1970s and ’80s when increasing numbers of moderate Democrats and conservative Republicans were getting elected to the General Assembly, Old Guard conservative Democrats rfemained firmly in control and were the “power elite” cited by Dr. Fickett.
Since the publication of his book four years ago, however, things have started to change and there is every indication even more radical change lies directly ahead. The 1991 session of the legislature will probably, for a number of reasons, be the most sharply partisan and ill-tempered of modern times.
That’s just an opinion, of course, and events, like weather, could turn out to be much tamer than forecast. Yet to this observer the storm clouds seem to be gathering around the current power brokers as other potential power brokers from a different wing of their own party, or the opposite party, feel sufficiently free of restraints to meet them in head-on combat.
The stars, or the times, or whatever, seem in proper convergence for the moderate-liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, so long used to playing ball and picking up the crumbs, to demand their own seats at the table.
The moderate-liberal Democrats know that no matter how the Old Guard Democrats try to cope with redistricting, they will come out on the short end. The Democratic Party of Virginia, by the nature of its constituency these days, must inevitably mirror more and more the moderate-liberal views of the national party.
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