In my tenure covering the Legislature, I've always had a preference for the Senate, since for many years I covered the Senate exclusively. (Or more accurately, I basically wasn't allowed in the House.)
The Senate has the prestige of being the upper house, with a sense of collegiality and the status of being the state's most exclusive fraternity with only 34 members, with amenities such as the fabled Junior Rules members-only lounge.
So it's been disheartening in the special session to hear senators say they have to amend this or omit that to appease the House leadership.
The Senate I knew would never be subordinate to the House. They'd pass bills as they saw fit, and if the House didn't like it, they'd be ready to face them down in conference committee showdown.
Of course, in the past, Senate leaders had years to learn the "Senate way." Earl Ray Tomblin had been a senator for 14 years before he was elected president. Jeff Kessler had been a senator for 13 years before succeeding Tomblin.
By contrast, Bill Cole had all of two years in the Senate before becoming president, and many other members of the leadership team (including Mitch Carmichael and Charlie Trump) are relative newbies to the Senate after long tenures in the House.
Last week, we witnessed the disgusting spectacle of a Senate Health and Human Resources chairman - Sen. Ryan Ferns, R-Ohio - offering an amendment to gut the tobacco tax bill (SB 1005), under the watchful eyes of tobacco lobbyists, on the pretense the change was necessary to make the bill palatable to House members.
The proposal was so reprehensible, the Republican caucus could not hold together to support it, and once Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, who deals with tobacco-caused illnesses as a pulmonary physician, said he could not vote for the measure, Senate leadership had no choice but to withdraw it in a humiliating defeat.
(There's no way to know what type of leader Jim Justice would be as governor, but one thing seems certain: He would not kowtow to the tobacco lobby, or any other lobby for that matter.)
As the special session began, as Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, put it, "This is a time for leaders to lead."
However, as the session dragged through its first week, inertia and trepidation instead seemed to prevail, with leadership not wanting to pursue serious revenue enhancements, but also not wanting to close the $270 million 2016-17 budget shortfall entirely though spending cuts that would result in layoffs and elimination of programs and services.
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If the session continues through Wednesday, it presents the awkward situation of Cole hosting a gubernatorial fundraiser at Edgewood Country Club, putting lobbyists with issues pending before the Legislature in a position of feeling compelled to contribute.
Speaking of lobbyists, I guess it was inevitable that a lobbyist would top $100,000 of spending in a four-month reporting period.
It happened in the January-April disclosures to the Ethics Commission, with the distinction going to Chris Hamilton with the West Virginia Business and Industry Council and the West Virginia Coal Association, who reported spending $122,649.
Most of that was on behalf of BIC, and just where it went is unclear since almost all the spending is listed under the "other expenses" line.
Itemized spending on the disclosure totals less than $13,000, including an $11,329 reception at the Marriott, and a $1,250 contribution to underwrite the Leadership West Virginia reception after the State of the State address.
He also listed $376 for a BIC legislative luncheon at the Capitol, and $144 to take Cole, Carmichael and House Finance Chairman Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, to dinner at the Chop House March 2 ($48 each? He must have had a coupon).
Ethics Commission Executive Director Rebecca Stepto said commission staff will send the disclosure back to Hamilton to get further clarification on the spending. (I suspect a good bit of it may be campaign contributions, even though that line was left blank on the disclosure form.)
To put the $122,649 in perspective, in 1991, the first year that lobbyists were required to disclose spending under the state Ethics Act, the 372 registered lobbyists spent a total of $160,563, for the entire year.
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After Justice's unexpectedly large margin of victory in the Democratic primary, and with multiple polls showing him leading Cole, the Republican Governors Association has bought more than $313,000 of TV air-time statewide to run attack ads against Justice through mid-June.
While attack ads more than five months out from the general election in a West Virginia governor's race may be unprecedented, political observers speculate that the RGA is trying to close the polling gap between Justice and Cole, and if the attack ads don't cause a bump, they likely will move their money to more competitive gubernatorial races in the fall.
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Finally, it was sad to learn of the passing of longtime West Virginia University Alumni Association President Steve Douglas, but it brought back many fond memories, because my most frequent contact with Steve was to do WVU bowl trip previews.
In the pre-Internet days - and I believe I've done previews going back to the 1989 Fiesta Bowl - my motivation for doing the trip previews was partly selfish, since having local chambers of commerce and host city tourism offices mail out travel information for the preview gave me a head start on my personal bowl trip planning.
Each bowl preview meant a call to Douglas to get a rundown on alumni association activities.
Initially, WVU bowl trips were sporadic, but quickly became nearly annual events, to the point I would close my interview with Steve by saying we'd be in touch for next year's bowl game.
Over the years, while the bowl trip previews became routine, and somewhat of an anachronism in an era when travel information is readily available at one's fingertips, Steve's enthusiasm and pride in talking about the Mountaineers and WVU alumni never waned.
Reach Phil Kabler at
philk@wvgazettemail.com,
304 348-1220, or follow
@PhilKabler on Twitter.