Virginia's Real Politics
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Preston Bryant is a Republican who has represented Lynchburg and part of Amherst County in the Virginia House of Delgates since 1996.

And to not know this soft-spoken, 15-year delegate from Stafford County is to miss knowing one whom most all believe is the right man at the right time to take hold of the second most powerful job in state government.

The House Republican Caucus has tapped Howell to take over the Speaker’s chair in January from interim Speaker Lacey Putney, whose temporary reign was recently set in awkward motion by Vance Wilkins’ forced resignation as presiding officer. Wilkins also has announced he’ll leave the House altogether on Aug. 15.

A long-planned trip to see friends and drive the rocky California coast prevented me from attending the special caucus meeting this past Saturday to knight Howell. While I was among the glass and steel of downtown Los Angeles, my heart and spirit were back in Mr. Jefferson’s Capitol where Howell was humbly accepting his colleagues’ challenge to lead them with honor and uphold the dignity of our beloved House.

In the week or so that I’ve been absorbing California’s curious brand of politics -- not to mention its deceivingly intense sun -- I’ve become increasingly convinced that Howell should be glad he’s being called to greatness back in our Old Dominion and not here.

California is odd. Its politics are odder, made so, of course, by those who define it. Just look at Howell’s counterpart.

Herb Wesson is the Speaker of the California Assembly. He’s an admitted uberliberal who represents the ethnically diverse Culver City area of Los Angeles. The Democrat was elected speaker in January – amazingly, in his second term in the Assembly. While Wesson’s quick rise to the top spot might attest to certain political skills, statehouse watchers here say he’s never been accused of having steadfast beliefs or being a deep policy thinker.

And in barely a half-year as speaker, what a disappointment – some would say danger -- Wesson has turned out to be.

He’s coming off a months-long battle to give the gimme-gimme California Teachers Association unprecedented collective bargaining powers. He strong-armed the Assembly’s Education Committee into passing the union-backed bill on an 8-6 vote. But he couldn’t muster a majority to pass it in the 80-member Assembly he leads. Realizing defeat, Wesson stuck the bill in a cubbyhole just before a floor vote.

He’s also sought to expand off-track betting, mandate kindergarten for all kids, and prohibit employers from requiring employees to speak English at work.

Some California newspapers wonder if Wesson is the best state Democrats have to offer for the Speaker’s post.

Bill Howell – thankfully – is as different from Herb Wesson as Virginia is from California.

Howell’s not one to kowtow to unions in our right-to-work state. He’s not a big fan of state-sponsored gambling. He thinks parents, not the state, should be in control of their children. He’s a laissez-faire sort who’d make Friedrich Hayek proud – the fewer regulations on business, the more jobs they create.

The Virginia Speaker-to-be is a solid conservative, but not in a punch-you-in-the-nose sort of way. He’s a persuader, not an intimidator. He’s an administrator, not a taskmaster.

Virginia Democrats surely would have wished the GOP to designate a Gingrich-type to be Speaker. Every politico likes to have an easy target, someone to morph in commercials, someone to papier-mache into pinatas at rah-rah parties for the faithful.

But in Howell, they don’t get that. In fact, House Democrats have had nothing but nice things to say about the easy-going Howell and the Republicans’ selection of him.

Howell is 59 years old, in good health, and has a politically safe legislative district. He could spend at least 15 years serving as the most powerful legislator in Virginia.

He will be a Republican voice to rally the troops and recruit new ones. It will be a voice that the Virginians who get to know him will accept and trust. It will be soothing to all who hear it.

And, of course, the most important thing to remember about Bill Howell is this: he’s not Herb Wesson.

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