Virginia Tomorrow

Inspired by Dr. Bob Holsworth’s Time To Update the Lieutenant Governor’s Role

Heck, if someone is going to raise and spend so much money to get elected to a statewide office, she or he ought to do more in office than watch the Governor’s blood pressure, prepare (or ill-prepare) for the next election, and sit on a podium staring at Dick Saslaw or whomever succeeded John Chichester as the real Republican Leader.

If the office of Lieutenant Governor is to remain one of the three positions elected by all of the voters of Virginia, some additional responsibilities are indeed in order.

Assigning the Lieutenant Governor duties as a public advocate might be a good idea.  If memory serves, however, the idea was tried in New York City when the City last revised its Charter and exchanged the office of President of the City Council for that of Public Advocate.  Mark Green, already running for Mayor, publicly trumpeted the office but didn’t get all that much done.  Since then, less seems to have happened despite the incumbency of the very talented Betsy Gotbaum.

For a Virginia Public Advocate to have real impact, you’d have to give the office standing to sue to protect the public interest, a real budget, and a substantial staff. 

Many folks might then ask:  why do we have an Attorney General?

During the past four years, other than to have someone to defend the idea of $1,500 speeding tickets, I’d have been flummoxed to give them an answer.

Hoping we might have more energetic AG’s in the future, however, I’d suggest two alternative solutions to the Lieutenant Governor conundrum.

First:

Eliminate the office of Lieutenant Governor as an elected position.

Not long after our national Constitution was ratified, it was amended to eliminate the Vice Presidency of the United States as a separately elected office.  If we allowed Virginia Governors and Lieutenant Governors to run as a ticket, as at the national level and as in some other states, there might be something to please everyone.  Just think:  Nixon/Agnew; Reagan/Bush; Bush/Quayle; Clinton/Gore; Bush/Cheney; Obama/Biden.

Regardless, the candidate for CEO of a multibillion dollar enterprise would have an ‘Executive Vice President’ to whom he or she could assign important responsibilities, who would take the acclaim or the blame at the end of Virginia’s archaic single four year gubernatorial term, or who might resign as Governor of Alaska.  Certainly, the voters would have an additional criterion on which to base their choices for the top spot.

Second:

Make the Lieutenant Governor the popularly elected-chair of the State Corporation Commission.

The SCC holds sway over much that is important to all of us.  It affects our lives, our savings and our sacred trust.  Yet, often the SCC operates in a shroud of inattention.  Constitutionally providing that the Lieutenant Governor would be the chair and a voting member of the SCC might, sometimes, tear away that shroud.

The SCC’s decisions increasingly seem critical to the economic and environmental health of the Commonwealth.  Adding a member selected by her voters might be a healthy step towards additional transparency and increased public attention.

Such an upgrade of the Lieutenant Governor’s office also might not cost all that much as the Commission already has in place a generally well-regarded staff.

I’d think that was something upon which both Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds could agree.  Representatives of that company from which Terry McAuliffe wouldn’t take campaign contributions?  Hmm, maybe not so much.

Jim Severt is a lawyer who lives in Washington, DC.