The General Assembly formally resumed efforts to hammer out a new state budget today, and it looks like Senate Democrats have removed a political barrier that had threatened to hold up passage of a state spending plan.

Democratic leaders said their demand for more power in the evenly divided Senate is not an issue in budget negotiations with Republicans, who have working control of the chamber.

“I think it’s fair to say that the discussions about power-sharing – which is really policy-sharing – continue,” said Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, the chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. “I don’t foresee the budget being an issue where that’s concerned.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell and Senate Republican leaders have complained the Democrats blocked passage of two budget bills during the General Assembly’s regular session in an effort to gain more representation on GOP-controlled Senate committees. But Democratic leaders said today that they won’t link the power-sharing fight to talks over the spending and policy priorities they want to have included in the two-year, $85 billion budget.

Senate GOP leaders said they are trying to incorporate some of the Democrats’ requests into budget amendments that the Senate Finance Committee could consider Thursday. That could move the Senate closer to agreeing on a plan and reconciling differences with the House of Delegates.

“We’re getting close,” said Senate Democratic Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County.

The Senate and House held brief, pro forma floor sessions today with just a handful of members in attendance. Senate budget negotiators spent several minutes talking quietly in the center aisle of their chamber before moving their talks back to the General Assembly office building.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Walter Stosch, R-Henrico County, said he wants to brief his entire committee on the deliberations Thursday “to make sure our other members don’t feel excluded from the process.”

– Michael Sluss

Bill Bolling

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling continues to assemble a gubernatorial campaign team as he gears up for the 2013 election, and his latest hires include a Republican stalwart from the Roanoke Valley.

Bolling is gearing up for what could be an expensive and divisive Republican nomination battle with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Trixie Averill of Vinton will serve as Bolling’s Western Virginia political director, reprising a role she played for incumbent Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2009 and for McDonnell’s 2005 campaign for attorney general. As Bolling noted in a news release, Averill has done field work for every GOP gubernatorial candidate since 1993.

Bolling also has hired veteran GOP strategist Boyd Marcus as a general consultant. Marcus was the chief consultant on Republican Jim Gilmore’s 1997 gubernatorial campaign and later served as Gilmore’s chief of staff. His current clients include U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and George Allen’s U.S. Senate campaign. Marcus’ son Randy is Bolling’s chief of staff.

Bolling also announced today that he has hired Christie Heath as his campaign’s finance director. Heath recently served as Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth and has worked on campaigns for McDonnell and former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.

The full news release from Bolling is below: Read more »

Bob McDonnell

Public support for Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly has declined in the aftermath of a legislative session that featured divisive debates over abortion restrictions and gun laws, according to a statewide poll released this morning.

McDonnell’s approval rating dropped to 53 percent in the new Quinnipiac University survey, down 5 points from a poll conducted in early February. The new survey was conducted after the Republican governor signed a controversial law requiring women submit to an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion. The emotionally charged debate over the ultrasound law triggered protests at the state Capitol and put Virginia in the national spotlight.

In the poll, 52 percent of the registered voters surveyed oppose the ultrasound mandate and 41 percent support it. But opposition to the new law was stronger among men. Among women, only 49 percent oppose the law and 44 percent support it. A solid majority of Republican voters favor the ultrasound mandate, and most Democrats and independents oppose it.

McDonnell stepped into the debate last month, asking lawmakers to amend the legislation after realizing that it could require women to submit to a more invasive “transvaginal” procedure in order terminate an early-stage pregnancy. Lawmakers made those changes before sending the final version of the bill to the governor’s desk. The law, which will take effect July 1, will require an external, abdominal ultrasound.

While McDonnell still has a positive job approval rating, the General Assembly does not. Only 38 percent of the voters who participated in the Quinnipiac poll approve of the legislature’s performance, and 47 percent disapprove. That’s a dramatic change from a February survey in which 47 percent approved of the legislature’s work and only 37 percent disapproved.

The poll results come from telephone interviews with 1,034 registered voters conducted between March 13 and Sunday. The survey has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

The 60-day legislative session was marked by partisan tension in the evenly divided Senate and contentious debates over social issues and gun control. The session ended March 10 with lawmakers failing to pass a new state budget because of a partisan standoff in the Senate. A special session to deal with the budget resumes today.

“Virginia had been the only state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in which the state legislature had received a net positive job approval,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The fact that the legislature’s approval dropped so much, while approval ratings for other statewide elected officials are basically unchanged indicates that voter dissatisfaction is targeted.”

McDonnell’s approval rating is the lowest since Quinnipiac began polling in Virginia last June. The governor still has an overall positive rating, with 32 percent saying they disapprove of his performance. But Quinnipiac released poll results Tuesday which indicated that McDonnell, who has been touted as a potential vice presidential candidate, would not give the GOP ticket a significant boost in Virginia.

In the last month, McDonnell signed the controversial ultrasound law and legislation that repeals Virginia’s one-per-month limit on handgun purchases. More than half of the participants in the Quinnipiac poll support the 19-year-old gun control law, though male voters are divided on the issue.

“The controversy over the ultrasound and handgun bills would be a logical explanation for the decline in his approval rating, which had been above 60 percent for much of last year,” Brown said.

McDonnell’s strongest support comes from Western Virginia, where 56 percent approve of the governor’s job performance.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner boasts the highest approval rating of any statewide elected official at 62 percent. U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, who is not seeking re-election this year, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli have net positive ratings in the poll.

The complete poll results can be viewed here.

– Michael Sluss