06/19/14: Virginia’s full week of electoral aftershocks

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

ELECTIONS HAVE consequences. So do resignations. In the past couple of weeks, Virginians have experienced the consequences of both.

The state legislature finally passed a budget last week. The measure awaits action by the governor, who has until midnight Sunday to sign, amend or veto it.

For months, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democratic-controlled Senate have been at odds over the expansion of Medicaid. Support for expansion in the evenly divided Senate was bipartisan, with three of the Republican senators joining 20 Democratic ones.

The worsening financial condition of the commonwealth was putting pressure on the legislature to do something. Accepting federal monies from the expansion of Medicaid and thereby freeing up money for other objectives seemed like a good solution.

Before that argument could be made, though, Sen. Phil Puckett resigned. Puckett, a Democrat from Russell County, cited family reasons for his unexpected move. This put Republicans back into control of the Senate and in the drivers’ seat for a budget. By the end of the day the resignation was effective, both chambers had been called back into session.

That was Monday.

The next day brought another surprise: Eric Cantor, majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, was defeated in a primary election. That Cantor could lose sent shockwaves throughout the nation — and Richmond.

Wednesday morning a new budget was revealed. Facing a shortfall of $1.5 billion, it was stripped of most additional spending that had been included in the competing budgets passed by the House and Senate earlier this year. To make the numbers work, the state will have to draw down the rainy day fund.

And, of course, no expansion of Medicaid.

One of the reasons offered for the resistance to Medicaid expansion can be traced back to last year’s transportation package and politicians’ natural instinct for self-preservation. A couple of House Republicans lost their seats in the aftermath of the transportation battle. Cantor’s loss upped the fear.

Emboldened by their new majority and no doubt wary of the wrath of voters they chose to represent, it wasn’t enough that the budget did not include Medicaid expansion. The budget also had to contain language that made it clear that the governor lacked the authority to expand it on his own.

Never mind that the spokesman for the House speaker said it was unnecessary. “There is no language in the budget that gives the governor the authority to expand Medicaid, plain and simple,” he said. The budget adopted Thursday included an amendment — sponsored by all 20 Republican senators — to make that point extra clear.

At the root of this, once again, is gerrymandered districts. Drawn to maximize party performance, legislators choose the voters they represent rather than us choosing them. Representing a district where a challenge from the other party is unlikely to succeed has become the norm.

But in doing so, the legislators have set themselves up for intraparty challenges. Fear is a pretty good motivator; fear of losing the next election is an even greater motivator.

One thing is certain: Our single-term governors have no fear of losing their next election. Whatever Gov. Terry McAuliffe decides to do about the budget may be based on political calculus but not fear.

That election, too, had consequences.