As humor columnist Dave Barry would say, we are grateful to Alert Reader Andrea Hopkins. In this case, it should be “alert editor.”
Hopkins, opinion editor of the Bristol Herald Courier, thought an op-ed “authored’ by Sen. Phillip Puckett sounded familiar. And for good reason: The same piece had run in the Roanoke Times under the name of Sen. Frank Wagner.
Intrigued, Hopkins went on a search and discovered—lo!—Del. Steve Landes had already said the same thing in another newspaper.
Assembly Anonymous doesn’t want to get into finger wagging, but my my, boys, what would you do if one of your children had turned in homework that someone else had written?
The “someone” in this case was a lobbyist, August Wallmeyer, who wrote the op-ed that benefits his client and two bills before the General Assembly.
Wallmeyer’s clients include the Virginia Energy Providers Association and the Virginia Independent Power Producers. Wallmeyer crafted a piece that advocated ways of speeding up the state’s environmental permitting process.
The story about the multiple publication of the same piece by different legislators just won’t die. The Wagner op-ed ran in Roanoke January 17, and since then the flap keeps flapping statewide over the op-ed that urged support of HB1332 and SB423. Identical controversial bills introduced last year are back again.
In fact, much re-written and revised, HB1332 and SB423 are peacefully passing both houses and will soon be off to the Governor for signing.
But outraged citizens, bloggers and newspapers were riled up about three legislators claiming to have said the same thing in three publications.
What was the fuss about, and why did Wallmeyer get legislators to mouth what his clients wanted said?
Obtaining permits from the Air Pollution Control Board and the State Water Control Board must have been a pain for certain industries. In 2007 a bill was passed that would have combined these two boards and the Waste Management Board into the Board of Environmental Quality. A reenactment clause meant the bill had to come back this year.
It did, and the legislation has passed. But it’s a far cry from last year’s versions, HB3113 and SB1403.
As to how the bill sailed got through the final hearings so easily, one energy lobbyist observed, ”It’s been watered down so that everyone can live with it now.”
Sens. Wagner and Puckett and Del. Landes may think twice before they put their names on the work of a lobbyist again.
Assembly Anonymous understands that elected leaders use speech, report and letter writers all the time to relay THEIR messages. BUT there is a big difference in a ghostwriter crafting the message for a single lawmaker and a ghostwriter putting his words into the mouths of many.
Delegate Frank Medico Had a Different Take
As the Assembly winds down and, thankfully, many bills have been sent off to bill burying ground, AA thinks fondly of a Northern Virginia legislator, Del. Frank Medico, a Republican who served in the House from 1982 to 1989. He prided himself on never putting in legislation. In fact, he saw rescuing his constituents from legislation as a solemn and worthy duty.
AA believes the Medico Model deserves emulation.
Del. Kenneth Melvin, in the early days of the 2008 session said on the House floor something to the effect, “We all know we can get a bill written for any hare-brained idea we can come up with.”
One that has gone right through both houses this year has to do with French kissing.
Granted, Del. Riley Ingram’s bill grew out of an appalling incident—the husband of a child’s care provider French-kissed one of the children in his wife’s care, so the explanation of the bill went before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
But did this one incident require the attention and law making of the entire General Assembly to make it a felony for an adult to ”kiss a child on the mouth while penetrating the mouth of such child with his tongue”?
And Speaking of the French… What would Sartre Say?
In subcommittee meetings, the comment is sometimes made, “That’s a solution looking for a problem.”
So it was with a bill proposed by Del. Steve Landes that has to do with academic freedom. HB118 would require colleges and universities to report annually to the State Council of Higher Education how the institution is protecting academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. SCHEV, then, would send the information to the General Assembly each year.
Landes explained his bill that passed the House to a Senate subcommittee. Chairman Sen. John Edwards asked, when the information comes to the General Assembly, “What would we do with it?”
Landes didn’t seem to know.
Sen. Dick Saslaw wanted to know if there had been a problem. “I’ve been here 30 years and no one has complained to me (about academic freedom problems).”
Sen. Mamie Locke said, “I work in higher education and this makes me nervous.”
It also made SCHEV and the ACLU nervous. In fact, the ACLU said the legislation could have a “chilling” effect on freedom of speech.
What was the genesis of the bill, Saslaw asked.
“I saw the bill in other states and I’m on the Education Committee,” Landes said.
The subcommittee wasn’t inclined to pass the “solution looking for a problem” bill.