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Interesting panel discussion
last week at the University of Virginia Center for Politics about the declining cordiality between parties in the General Assembly.
I have commented on this before and generally concur with the panelists that included House Speaker Bill Howell, Del. Vince Callahan and Sen. John Chichester, all Republicans, and former Del. Chip Woodrum and former Sen. Hunter Andrews, both Democrats.
Though some of their views differed, the panelists generally agreed that it was easier for members of the two parties to get along when the Democratic Party’s rule over both the House and Senate was overwhelming.
During the more than a quarter of a century that I covered the Virginia legislature as a full-time journalist, I watched the level of sociability deteriorate as the Republicans gained more and more ground and partisan edges became sharper.
In the days of the late 1960s and through much of the 1970s, Republican and Democratic legislators mingled freely and often had a drink or two at such places as The Commonwealth Club, Shu’s bar at the downtown Holiday Inn or at various other watering holes around Richmond.
It was an age when even the media joined in some of the night-time socializing that went on. During that era various interest groups put on “must attend” social events practically every night of the legislative session.
The annual soiree put on by the state savings and loan association was spectacular, the hottest show in town when held each year at the Jefferson Hotel. Like other big ticket events, one could hardly wander a few feet with drink in hand without bumping into such important personages as the governor, the lieutenant governor or various highly influential legislators.
That bubble started to burst when the nation was rocked by a savings and loan scandal and so-called corporate greed became more of an issue. As a result, many special interest groups either scaled down their lavish functions or eliminated them altogether so as not to appear increasingly ostentatious.
For media folks like myself the parties not only offered free food and drink but a chance to catch various legislators in an atmosphere of relaxation and perhaps even pump a bit of inside news from them.
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