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months each year covering the assembly - distinguished veterans such as Sen. Charles Waddell of Leesburg or V. Earl Dickinson of Louisa. But there are also many newcomers. I have heard many of the names, but don’t recognize all the faces and that too is good since infusions of new blood are usually beneficial to any organization, including those that make laws that govern our lives.
The best part about being in Richmond is that you can actually see the people who make the laws and others who participate in the process. At the General Assembly lobbyists really do wait in lobbies to corner legislators and legislators ride in elevators along with the general public. In Washington, by contrast, the high powered lobbyists practice their trade very discreetly and out of public view and members of Congress ride in their own elevators.
In the space of a month and a half the ordinary citizens who make up the General Assembly will decide many crucial issue ranging from gun control to welfare reform. The pace will be hectic and sometimes brutal and there will be those who say our representatives should be given more time to study legislation and make their decisions.
Perhaps, but I hope we will guard against the danger of the state legislature becoming too much like Congress. The reason the legislature meets in January is because the1 early leaders of our state wanted to make' sure citizens who served in it could get home by spring to tend to the planting. When the day comes our legislature must meet into spring and on the summer and fall it won't seem like returning home to me any more.
(Editor's note: John Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now an aide to 1st District Congressman Herbert Bateman. Opinions expressed a re li is own).
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