03/12/15: Another sad result of safe districts

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

I FIRST heard last week that former Gov. Bob McDonnell was texting and emailing legislators to ask them to support a brief on overturning his conviction. With the passage of a pretty weak ethics bill and all 140 seats in the legislature on the ballot this fall, I didn’t expect many to sign on. As it turns out, relatively few did.

Politicians are generally a self-preserving bunch.

“Courage” is not a word that is often used to describe them. The backlash against the ethics bill has come from all corners — except, of course, from most members of the legislature.

They don’t want the gravy train to stop. The latest version of the ethics bill, passed as the legislature was headed out of town, is worse than its predecessor.

The optics of passing even such weak reform and then signing on to a brief supporting the poster boy whose actions led us here are just awful. I suspect that was reason enough for the majority of legislators to opt out, although I am aware that McDonnell did not reach out to them all.

Which begs the question: Why would 14 sitting senators and 19 sitting delegates sign on? I believe the answer lies in how much of a risk they thought they were taking.

Three of the senators have already announced their retirement and will not face voters this fall.

Of the rest, only Virginia Beach Sen. Frank Wagner has a serious challenger. One signer, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, has blamed the news media for ethics reform, saying the public hasn’t been asking for it. I guess not having to face the voters means not listening to them, either.

The biggest name on the House side is Majority Leader Kirk Cox. Notable by his absence is Speaker Bill Howell, who finds himself in a nominating battle with his former protégé. Only two of the others, including Virginia Beach Del. Ron Villanueva, face more than token opposition.

This is what partisan redistricting gets us. Lacking the threat of ouster or even challenge, those who represent us are free to take contradictory positions. Voting for an ethics bill — bad as it was — is contradictory to signing on to this brief. Still, with districts drawn to protect incumbents, voters are unable to hold elected officials accountable for their actions.

As Janis Joplin sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Reading through the summary of the proposed brief McDonnell sent out last week, I was struck by the fear-mongering language. The brief attacked the jury instructions; if the appellate court agrees with them, those instructions “will cripple politics in Virginia.” Of course, such strong language didn’t make it into the brief.

The lawyer writing the brief is correct — but probably not in the way he intended.

We need something that will cripple current politics in Virginia, something that will force lawmakers to act ethically. We could start with treating voters fairly and allowing us to choose our representatives, rather than them choosing us. Unaccountable elected representatives do a disservice to the commonwealth.

That so many legislators did not sign on to the brief — even those who face no opposition — gives me hope that someday, the legislature will do the right thing and return the power to the people.