Posted on 01/31/2005 5:46:16 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
During his 11 years with the Virginia Beach P olice D epartment, Officer Ken Stolle stepped into his share of domestic disturbances.
Although he’s retired from the force now, that background comes in handy for Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.
“When you’re a police officer, you’re a problem-solver,” said Stolle, a Republican senator since 1992. “When I’d go into a domestic violence situation and suggest to them that they should not resort to violence, it was oftentimes a wasted gesture. One way or another, I’ve got to separate those two people so that we can resolve the problem.
“The same thing happens in my role in the Senate. I never ask people to go where they can’t go. I try to bring people together where they have common ground.”
Stolle’s reputation as a deal-cutter and an honest broker has placed him among the handful of lawmakers who make things happen in Richmond. The Republican’s 14th year in the Senate is likely to be a tricky one, though.
His role in negotiating a compromise on last year’s tax increase has left lingering tensions within the normally clubby Senate leadership. His brief flirtation with a run for U.S. Congress left friends and foes wondering where his political career will take him.
Now, he’s engrossed in efforts to forge a transportation plan in a year when agreement on even modest measures for roads funding is proving to be elusive.
It’s the type of morass Stolle enjoys untangling. In recent years, he and Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, have honed their skills as stealth negotiators, prowling the corridors between the Senate, House of Delegates and the chief executive suite looking for consensus. Neither man has the seniority to be a budget negotiator, but those back-channel talks have become an increasingly important part of the legislative process.
Legislators who fought Stolle last year on tax increases nevertheless say they respect him.
“He’s a tough negotiator, but when push comes to shove, he will usually work things out with you,” said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. “What I like about negotiating with him is when the battle is over, he understands and moves on to another subject.”
The most visible signs of friction this year are among the Senate Republicans, usually the most cohesive voting block in the legislature. Although Gov. Mark R. Warner and House Republicans both have laid transportation plans on the negotiating table, senators have been unable to agree on a comprehensive package.
Stolle favors using some surplus cash to pay off debts on completed roads and to improve bus service in Virginia Beach. Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Stafford, the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, opposes that idea, saying it allows state leaders to avoid difficult decisions on long-term transportation needs.
Beneath this year’s policy difference are sore feelings left over from last year’s tax battles. Stolle and Chichester worked closely together to pass a package of tax increases that bolstered funding for schools and health care programs. Minutes before a final vote, however, lawmakers discovered an error in the legislation that would have delayed an income tax reduction for one year.
Chichester wanted to spend the $22 million generated by the mistake. He was dissatisfied with the $1.4 billion in new revenues in the compromise plan and was unwilling to give up more. Stolle and Norment refused, saying they had promised delegates the tax break. The standoff was resolved when Warner stepped in and promised to come up with the money for the tax cut from an anticipated budget surplus.
“John was upset for a number of months,” Stolle said. “From his perspective it was a bad thing to do. From my perspective, as one of the negotiators in trying to make the deal come through, it was clearly something we had to do. The majority of us felt we had made a commitment.”
The incident demonstrates how differently the two men approach problems. Stolle describes Chichester as a “purist” who eschews the political side of negotiations – a description the senior senator readily embraces.
“If I think Virginia should go in a certain direction because it’s good fiscal management, I don’t care about the politics of it, and they do,” Chichester said of Stolle and Norment. “I’m probably wrong in this. They consider what the House may do, and I never consider or care what the House may do.”
Chichester’s disdain for rough-and-tumble House politics is legendary. During negotiations over the car tax in 2001, Chichester admitted, “I remember pulling out my Palm Pilot and playing solitaire at one time, and then I would leave. And then I quit going.”
It’s little wonder two-tiered negotiations have become commonplace in the legislature, with Stolle and Norment searching for solutions outside the formal budget negotiations, which are controlled by Chichester.
The Finance chairman isn’t always happy with the results. Last year, for example, he insists the two men were negotiating with House Republicans on taxes without his blessing, even though Senate Majority Leader Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, maintains that Stolle and Norment were acting as official ambassadors for the Senate.
Such squabbles are rare among Senate leaders, and Stolle and Chichester said they are confident their long time friendship will survive the disagreement. At 50, Stolle is one of the younger Senate leaders. His relative youth means he likely will have chances to move up in the ranks in future years, but it also generates speculation that his ambitions will lead him elsewhere.
Last summer, Stolle briefly lobbied for the party’s nomination to seek the U.S. House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Edward L. Schrock, R-2nd District.
“It would have been a huge fight,” he said. “It wasn’t worth the fight.”
Stolle said he took his name out of consideration after it became clear Del. Thelma Drake, R-Norfolk, had gotten a head start in locking up commitments from local party leaders.
“The only reason I regret not fighting it out was that it was perceived as an anti-tax victory,” he said. Drake went on to defeat her Democratic opponent in the election.
Most political observers say the tax issue was key to the nomination decision, but Stolle dismisses that view.
His independent streak traces back to his childhood. Raised in a nomadic Navy family, he attended high school in England and graduated from Berry College, a small Christian school in Georgia, with a degree in criminology. He is now an attorney with Kaufman & Canoles . He and his wife, Debbie, have three children and live in eastern Virginia Beach.
Stolle, who lost 30 pounds last year on the Atkins diet, is in fighting form and prepared to face down any challengers who might emerge in the 2007 Senate elections. Virginia Beach lawmakers who voted against the tax increases say Stolle has fences to mend with his constituents, but they are confident he will do so.
“Ken underestimated the degree of opposition to tax increases in his home base,” said Del. Leo C. Wardrup, R-Virginia Beach. “I think sometimes you pay too much attention to the people you hear the most from. Will that hurt him in 2007? I don’t think so. That’s a long way away.”
Wardrup said Stolle’s plain-spoken style is one reason he should be able to restore his good standing with voters after backing the tax increase.
“He was upfront about it,” Wardrup said. “He was there from the get-go, and there was no secret about what he was doing.”
Stolle, who made a failed bid for the Republican attorney general nomination in 1997, doesn’t rule out a future run for statewide office. The question remains whether his own party would back him.
Morton Blackwell, one of Virginia’s representatives on the Republican National Committee, said it would be a tough sell.
Although Republican legislators split over taxes last year, the activists who control the party were unanimous in their opposition to the increases and remain resentful toward elected officials who strayed from the GOP line.
“It’s clear that tax increases loom large in people’s minds,” Blackwell said. “Tax cuts and no new taxes are very important to the grass-roots Republicans in Virginia. There’s probably more unanimity of opinion on that than on any other issue.”
Politics is filled with surprises, though, Blackwell added, and Stolle is the kind of politician who can shake up expectations. One thing he won’t do is let his critics shatter his resolve.
“You have to do what you think is right,” he said. “If your constituents don’t want you, you can hold your head up high and know you did what you thought was right. That’s got to be the guiding principle.”
For the Virginia-challenged, he's a RINO state senator from Virginia Beach. He was a key facilitator of our tax hikes last year, and the primary sponsor of the only significant piece of gun control legislation to gain passage in Virginia for awhile.
The media loves him. The Virginian-Pilot runs stories quoting him frequently.
Ping
Thanks for the ping. What (little) hair I have is either falling out or turning gray and then falling out.......
And I'm doubling my blood pressure dose because this is just making my blood boil.
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