[Posted Nov. 16, 2007]

Sen. Miller Assumes
New Position As
Senior Legislator

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
 
      Last week’s legislative election revealed much about the fortunes of the state’s  political parties, as the state gears up for a presidential election next year and a contest to determine who will lead Virginia two years from now.
        Both the Democrats and the GOP had a lot at stake  as the votes were tallied to determine all 140 seats in the General Assembly.

Senator Yvonne Miller

       With the Democrats capturing four of the five seats they had targeted to recapture the  Senate from the Republicans, they now lead with a  21-18 margin.
      For Norfolk’s 5th District Senator Yvonne Miller that translates into a new position of power. Dr. Miller, a Democrat, is now the senior legislator from Hampton Roads with 20 years of service in the Senate as of 2008. Miller will no longer have to defer on judicial appointments or funding issues.
  

     Further, Senator Miller said that for the first time more African Americans will gain seats on powerful committees, denied them when the GOP was in control of the Senate.  When the General Assembly convenes in January, Senator Miller said she will have a seat, for the first time, on the Senate Finance Committee.
        Miller, who was first elected to the Virginia State Senate in 1988, says  that after the 2010 Census, the State will redraw the lines of its federal congressional districts and  many state legislative boundary lines.
       The Senate will be in the lead in the process. One important outcome may be the creation of an additional minority-majority Congressional District.  That District may be the 4th District seat held by Republican Randy Forbes, now. 
      During the last redistricting process, a large portion of African American voters were removed from the 4th District and placed in the 3rd Congressional District.     

     Before the redistricting, there was 48 percent Black voting representation. When Black voters were removed, Forbes beat Democrat Louise Lucas, an African American State Senator from Portsmouth, for that seat.
       The 2nd Congressional District seat, held by Republican Thelma Drake, may be converted, as well. Drake is on the Democrats’ hit list.  In the past elections, her margins of victory were narrowed, by five percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
  The 3rd Congressional seat is being held by Virginia’s lone Black Congressman in the national legislature, Democrat Robert “Bobby” Scott of Newport News.
      Delegate Brian Moran, the chair of the current House Caucus, said that although the Democrats had good electoral fortune last week,  it may be too soon to define the state as one which is turning into a Democratic stronghold.
       In the House, the Democrats won only two new seats, not enough to gain control.  The Republicans dominate with a 56-42 margin.
       “But we had some extreme (Republican) candidates who the voters  felt were out of touch with their views and values,” said Del. Moran, who said the Democrats spent about $2 million during the 2007 election cycle. 
     “Most voters in this state are neither Democrat nor Republican, they are Independent thinkers and whoever can convince that important block of voters that you are for moving Virginia Forward, you can win. Democrats proved we could do it last week.”

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