Power to govern

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore said four years is not long enough to accomplish long-term initiatives such as transportation, and he supports allowing two successive terms for Virginian’s governor.

“We don’t have term limits on anyone else,” said Gilmore, who backs an amendment in the Virginia constitution to allow governors to run for re-election for a second consecutive term. Virginia voters should have the decision whether to send a governor back to Richmond, Gilmore said.

Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, has refiled his constitutional amendment proposal for next month’s General Assembly, and it is sparking debate across the Old Dominion and among Shenandoah Valley legislators.

Virginia is the lone state among 50 that does not allow successive terms by its governor. A governor can serve eight years, but not successively.

Proponents – including Gilmore and his successor, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner — say Virginians want the change, and should have the right to vote on it.

A statewide referendum would be one needed facet of amending the constitution. The amendment also would require passage by two legislative sessions that have had an intervening election.

The earliest such a question could appear on the ballot is 2010.

Opponents say giving Virginia’s governor two successive four-year terms puts too much power in the executive branch, which already has sweeping appointive power over state boards and commissions.

“If we had a governor running for re-election, all he would be doing is running for re-election,” said Del. Chris Saxman, R-Staunton.

Saxman said the Virginia governor now has limited time to accomplish a legislative agenda. Four years forces the governor to work with legislators.

“Other states should follow our lead and have a more balanced approach between the branches,” Saxman said.

James Madison University political scientist Bob Roberts said the current system has worked well.

“When you go to a two-term governor, the office assumes more and more power,” Roberts said. “It [the governor] becomes more like the presidency.”

Gilmore is not alone among former Virginia governors in his support for successive terms. Kevin Hall, a spokesman for U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Warner, said then-Gov. Warner endorsed Purkey’s reform attempt when he proposed it in 2003.

Hall said Warner thinks a governor needs more than four years to see the results of programs he has started.

“You are not around to see how the programs turn out or if they work or can be improved on,” Hall said. Warner found that “four years goes by awfully quick,” Hall said.

Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, studied successive terms as the chairman of a joint Virginia House and Senate subcommittee a few years ago. Virginians, Landes said, believe successive terms would help with economic development and other policy areas.

If the change happened, Landes would want reform of the executive powers. Those reforms would include more legislative involvement in appointments that would mirror a confirmation process.

Gilmore said there is no relation between the appointive powers of the governor and the successive terms. He said many of the appointments the Virginia governor makes are ceremonial, while others are substantive.

The former governor said it is the national consensus that successive terms is the right way to go.