Posted on 07/02/2002 12:27:54 PM PDT by VaFederalist
Edited on 07/20/2004 11:46:54 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Sen. Madison Marye, D-Montgomery, will retire from the Senate this summer after a 29-year career in which his populism and homespun humor made him one of the state's most memorable legislators.
Marye, 76, said concerns about his health influenced his decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
This is a goofy system in place for the Senate right now. This will make the 4th district voting with the new boundaries while the rest are still using the old ones.
Puller's district was moved into PW with Del. Michelle McQuigg in mind. McQuiqq has declined so far to express an interest in that seat. The Pr Wm precincts in that district aren't exactly GOP hotbeds but McQuigg could have pulled it off, she has a knack for winning marginal precincts and deserves a lot of respect for it. I can't believe that the daughter-in-law of General Chesty Puller, one of the greatest Marines ever, is such a flaming leftist.
It makes me sick sick sick that Tom Davis has annointed Devolites as the successor to him when he decides to run for higher office. The redistricting took just enough of the 11th Cong. district into PW for general election safety but not enough to make a difference in a nomination fight. Most of PW is powerless to choose their Congressman.
Not sure if Devolites cherry-picked a Senate district for herself or if she is going to try for Lt. Gov. instead.
Depending on who the conservative is in a Devolites match-up, she can be defeated. Conservatives are well organized around here and are fairly responsible regarding showing up for primary elections.
Since Warner's in for another six years, we sure are speculating about a long time hence. It's fun to do anyway.
Jul 23, 2002
Senior assembly Democrat resists pressure, will resign
BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Democrat Madison E. Marye, the "Uncle Billy" of the Virginia Senate, is quitting Aug. 1, his rural district having been shifted to the Washington suburbs.
"I feel the time has come for me to go," Marye said in a letter yesterday to Gov. Mark R. Warner.
Marye, the General Assembly's longest-serving Democrat, had been under pressure to complete the remaining 18 months in his four-year term, but he resisted.
Last year during redistricting, Republicans carved up his 39th Senatorial District to accommodate fast-growing Northern Virginia, where the GOP has made impressive gains.
It falls to Warner to call a special election.
The contest would be held in the newly drawn 39th Senate District, the anchor of which is now Fairfax County - not Marye's leafy Montgomery County at least 200 miles away in Southwest Virginia.
Marye's old district is now represented by a variety of senators.
Marye, 76, a Montgomery farmer with blood ties to two U.S. presidents, was first elected to the Senate in 1973. He announced earlier this month he'd resign within 60 days, but Warner and other Democrats had urged him to complete his term.
The 40-member Senate is up for election in 2003, as is the House of Delegates, with 100 seats.
In the Senate, Republicans hold 21 seats to the Democrats' 18, with one vacancy formerly held by a Republican.
"The continued confusion regarding my district has complicated my situation considerably," wrote Marye, who had planned to retire after the 2003 election.
Marye is among a number of legislators and political activists who believe special elections should be held in old districts to be sure residents are represented.
Republican-drawn districts in the House and the Senate are under challenge in state court. Thrown out by a judge, in some cases, as racially biased, the GOP plan is now before the Virginia Supreme Court.
In papers filed yesterday, lawyers for Warner and the Legislative Black Caucus urged the seven justices to affirm the decision of the lower court. Warner and the caucus members are Democrats.
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, a Republican, wants the high court to overturn the trial judge.
In floor debates, Marye would often refer to his Uncle Billy, who was the senator's fictitious alter ego and - while often given to zany exploits - reflected Marye's common-sense approach to a range of issues.
Democrats said they hope to recruit a candidate for the new 39th Senate District seat. Republicans could field Del. Jay O'Brien of Fairfax.
However, O'Brien is among those who have questioned a separate special election, planned for Aug. 6, to fill a Senate seat in Fairfax being vacated by Republican Warren E. Barry.
Barry is leaving the legislature for a Warner appointment to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, the agency that runs the state's liquor monopoly.
A federal lawsuit is challenging the election in the Fairfax-anchored 37th District, saying it unfairly denies representation to residents of the old district.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com
Source
Jul 22, 2002
Marye sets retirement date; Warner files redistricting case brief
BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The state Senate's most tenured member notified Gov. Mark R. Warner on Monday that he would retire effective Aug. 1, likely heading off one court challenge to Virginia's complicated redistricting procedures.
In a separate legal action Monday, an attorney for the governor filed papers asking the state Supreme Court to uphold a lower court decision that the Republican-drawn 2001 state legislative reapportionment plan is racially gerrymandered.
Sen. Madison E. Marye, D-Montgomery, earlier this month had said he planned to retire with a year left on his term. By setting the effective date in a letter faxed to Warner, Marye allows the governor to promptly schedule a special election for his vacant seat.
Warner plans to announce the special election date this week, said his press secretary, Ellen Qualls.
Marye, 76, decided to leave after Republicans shifted his district last year from rural, mountainous southwestern Virginia into the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Fairfax and Prince William counties about 250 miles away. He also said he had grown weary of the long weekly commutes from his farm in Elliston to Richmond each winter for legislative sessions.
Even as Marye was informing Warner of his retirement date, he was being added as a defendant in a lawsuit five northern Virginia residents filed in federal court in Alexandria over the state's procedure for holding special elections in redrawn districts.
State law dictates that after each reapportionment, the new district lines become immediately effective, and any subsequent elections are held in the redrawn boundaries, including special elections for unexpired terms.
Washington lawyer Lee E. Goodman sued after state Sen. Warren E. Barry resigned his 37th District seat last month to accept an appointment to the Alcoholic Beverage Commission board. A special election for Barry's seat was called in the redrawn, geographically smaller 37th District. The difference in the old boundary and the new district created a gap in which 48,000 people had no senator and no vote in picking a new one.
Marye's resignation solves that problem. The election to fill his 39th District seat will be in the reapportioned lines in northern Virginia, adjacent to the new 37th District. That gives the 48,000 disenfranchised Fairfax and Prince William County residents _ including the five Goodman represents _ a chance to elect their own senator.
Marye said in a telephone interview he had been cutting hay most of the day on his cattle ranch and was unaware he had been named a party to the lawsuit.
Goodman said Marye's letter to Warner would make his lawsuit moot.
"While a problem remains with Virginia's election law, my clients have obtained a right to vote and to representation as a result of Senator Marye's resignation. As a result, our lawsuit may be dismissed," Goodman said.
In an unrelated filing, Stanford University law Professor Pamela S. Karlan asked the Virginia Supreme Court to uphold Salem Circuit Judge Richard Pattisall's ruling that the 2001 redistricting was unconstitutional.
Karlan agreed to represent the governor without cost after Republican Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore and Warner, a Democrat, found themselves in stark disagreement on the lawsuit Democrats filed last year. Ordinarily, the attorney general's office represents state agencies, institutions and officeholders in legal challenges.
Kilgore wants the justices to reverse Pattisall's finding that the Legislature packed heavily minority areas into overwhelmingly black-majority House and Senate districts, sometimes separating communities and creating bizarre, misshapen boundaries.
Excessive concentrations of black voters might assure the election of candidates favored by minority voters in a few districts, but it dilutes black voting strength in other districts that were once competitive, Karlan argued.
"That degree of concentration was clearly excessive, particularly in light of the disregard of traditional districting principles of contiguity, compactness, respect for precinct boundaries and concern for communities of interest that it entailed," she wrote.
M. Warner couldn't justify the cost burden on localities if he were to hold this election on any other day like he wanted to.
First, we get Cuccinelli elected. Then O'Brien. Having real races is a good thing this year, forces the local parties to build & maintain an organization that will help in '03.
Jul 23, 2002
Warner sets special elections to coincide with general election
BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Special elections to fill the vacant seats of former House Speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr. and state Sen. Madison E. Marye will be held with the autumn general election, Gov. Mark R. Warner said Tuesday.
Warner 's decision to schedule the elections Nov. 5 spares state and local governments the cost of staging an extra election. The deadline for candidates to qualify for both races will be Aug. 23.
Wilkins, R-Amherst, announced earlier this month that he will resign the seat he had held in the House of Delegates for 24 years.
Wilkins, the chief architect of the 64-seat Republican majority in the House, resigned as speaker in June after admitting he paid an Amherst woman $100,000 out of court to silence her claims that he made unwelcome sexual advances. He denied improper behavior.
His resignation from the House becomes effective Aug. 15.
Marye, D-Montgomery, informed Warner on Monday that his resignation would take effect on Aug. 1, ending his legislative career at 29 years, the longest tenure of any active senator.
The 2001 Republican-led reapportionment moved his 39th Senate District from the rural southwestern Virginia region where he lives into the crowded suburbs of Fairfax and Prince William counties nearly 250 miles away.
With Marye's resignation official, Del. Jay O'Brien, R-Fairfax, scheduled a Wednesday news conference at the town hall in Clifton to announce his candidacy for the 39th District seat.
Also in response to Marye's formal announcement, Washington attorney Lee E. Goodman said he will withdraw a lawsuit he filed on behalf of Fairfax and Prince William voters in the redrawn 39th District who said they were being denied a voice in the Senate.
Marye, who was added as a defendant on Monday, said he was disappointed that the lawsuit will not proceed. It was filed in federal court in Alexandria to challenge the state's confusing procedure for holding interim elections immediately after redistricting.
"What about the people in these five counties and one city down here in southwestern Virginia who aren't going to have a senator now?" Marye said.
"I thought they had a good point with the suit. I guess they got what they wanted up in northern Virginia so they don't care what happens anywhere else," Marye said.
State law requires that legislative vacancies that occur after a new redistricting plan takes effect be filled under the redrawn lines, even if they don't mesh with the districts from which legislators were last elected. Nearly 17 months remain on the four-year terms of senators elected in 1999 from districts that are now legally defunct.
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