Dear Friends and Virginians:
I had a newsletter drafted for today but put it aside, when I saw the news that Senator Janet Howell had passed.
I served with Janet for the entirety of my time in the State Senate. She was a cornerstone of our Caucus, as well as the Senate Finance Committee. For her last term, she served as the Senate Finance Chair, which gave her tremendous power that she wielded in an intelligent and deliberate manner. In an age of ostentation and self-promotion, she was thoughtful and always classy.
Janet will be recognized as a pioneer for being the first female Senate Finance Leader. However, she was also very much a part of the Old Senate (RIP), which is very different from politics today.
Today, the Left and the Right dominate every debate. However, in the old days, it was the Senate Finance Committee against the world. They controlled the General Assembly. The rest of us were outsiders.
They were an elite group, led for years by John Chichester (R-Stafford), who acted in a manner often divorced from party politics. Indeed, those Senators — Janet Howell, Dick Saslaw, Tommy Norment, Walter Stosch, and John Watkins (to name a few) — served their entire political career in the Senate. It’s almost impossible to imagine today.
In 2004, the Senate Finance Committee, on their own and without asking anybody, decided they were going to restructure the state tax code. In the face of a powerful anti-tax coalition (and while this was a Republican-majority state), they passed bipartisan legislation which raised the sales tax, the income tax and closed numerous loopholes. As a House member at the time, I thought they were crazy.
You can agree or disagree with the result (I voted “yes” to the final product) – the bottom line is they didn’t look at opinion polls. They did their own thing. And it was never reversed.
Janet was part of that tradition. She served this state in a faithful and dignified way.
I’m lucky to have served with her.
JCP Notes: Congratulations to the City of Fairfax Theatre Company, which completed its run of “Frozen” this past weekend. Absolutely fabulous show. Congratulations to Director Amanda Snellings, et al.
As for the Virginia Cardinals, we got to the rugby finals at Saranac Lake in New York but lost to a team of USMC alumni (“Old Breed”) who beat us up physically and on the scoreboard. Here’s our 2nd place team photo.
New lawsuit filed in United States District Court, Western District of Virginia, which I will explicate next week. Until then.
Peace,
Chap