Return to story

Senate rookie begins session

January 11, 2008 12:36 am

RICHMOND--Richard Stuart rose from his new Senate desk--located in a corner of the Senate chamber, from which he can see little--and joined his 39 new peers in vowing to uphold the state constitution.

Somewhere in the chamber were 30-some friends, family and supporters, who drove from the 28th state Senate district to see Stuart formally sworn in as a state senator, a position he won in last November's election.

He comes in as a member of the minority party, now that Democrats won a narrow majority in the Senate in November, so he didn't get his top picks for committee assignments. Stuart wanted to be on the Transportation and Agriculture committees, but instead has been assigned to General Laws and Technology, Local Government and Rehabilitation and Social Services.

He has a background in law and in local government, Stuart said, and will start learning more about social services.

Stuart did get his pick of offices. He's on the third floor of the General Assembly office building, with wide windows and a view over Ninth Street to the new courthouse being built nearby.

The office is decorated sparsely so far, mostly pictures of his three kids, or of fish, or boats, or the kids fishing on boats. On this opening, swearing-in day, it's also decorated with the kids themselves, sitting in chairs or Stuart's lap.

They left after the swearing-in, which was just as well, because the Senate's first session lasted four hours, well beyond the norm for the opening day session. Stuart's supporters and family and friends who'd come went off to a lunch reception he had arranged, and to which he had intended to go himself.

But some confusion over the Senate rules, as written by the new Democratic majority, caused a delay. Stuart missed his own reception, and was left to eat a sandwich in his office at 4 in the afternoon.

He didn't seem to mind.

"It's exciting and intimidating at the same time," Stuart said of his first day as a member of one of the oldest continuously operating legislative bodies.

Later in the evening, he joined the rest of the legislature in attending Gov. Tim Kaine's State of the Commonwealth speech, held in the House of Delegates chambers. Stuart was given the job of making the motion to adjourn--possibly the only time he'll get a unanimous vote on a motion, he said.

Stuart said he is so far impressed with the collegial atmosphere of the Senate.

"The Senate really does seem to be a body that wants to work together," he said. "It doesn't appear to be a partisan group."

He said that as he was reading bills in his office during a break on his second day in office. Stuart is trying to get used to new bifocals, plus wade through what will be hundreds of bills.

"The hardest thing about this is you've got to find the time in the system to try to analyze everything carefully," he said. He doesn't want to let bills slip by him, or sign on as a co-sponsor without knowing what they are.

Stuart himself had planned to introduce only six bills, thinking to limit his workload as he learns the ropes.

But then Rob Wittman, the delegate for the Northern Neck, which is in Stuart's Senate district, won last month's special election to the 1st District congressional seat. Wittman resigned his House seat, leaving it open (there's an election to fill it on Feb. 19) and handing off his bills to Stuart. There were 30 of them. So much for Stuart's six-bill limit.

He said he will put in about 20 bills total, many of which deal with conservation issues--like one requiring lawn maintenance companies, or any commercial applicator of fertilizer, to do a soil analysis before applying the fertilizer. The idea is to reduce nitrogen run-off that ends up harming the Chesapeake Bay.

Despite what looks to be a heavy workload, Stuart plans to commute from his home in Montross when he can.

"I miss my children too much to stay away for a week at a time," he said.