When the next General Assembly goes into session in January, the House of Delegates committees will have more Democrats and fewer Republicans.
Back in the 80s and 90s, the size of the Democratic majority in the House of Delegates started to dwindle. But party leaders refused to kick senior members off committees, which meant that some Republican delegates didn’t have any committee assignments at all. So, their constituents were unrepresented.
"If their member to the House of Delegates doesn't have any committee assignments, they're being disenfranchised," says former Delegate Brian Moran, a Democrat who was first elected in 1995.
"Eventually, thankfully, proportional representation was achieved because it makes it far more fair."
That fairness was created out of a crisis; a 50-50 split in the House that forced a power-sharing agreement in 1998. Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith led House Republicans at the time and insisted that the makeup of the committees should reflect the makeup of the House.
"So, it became the cornerstone of what was then a power-sharing agreement. And then when I became majority leader, I was adamant that we had to do the right thing," Griffith says. "We had championed it for years, and we needed to do the right thing. And interestingly, whether it be Republicans or Democrats, since that time, both Democrats and Republicans have kept proportional representation on the committees."
Now that Democrats have a 64-seat majority, the math works out this way: a 22-member committee will have 15 Democrats and seven Republicans; an eight-member subcommittee will have six Democrats and only two Republicans.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
