It’s only been a few months into Abigail Spanberger’s administration, and already I’m growing weary of this. Here we are again in a scenario too similar to issues that dogged Gov. Glenn Youngkin during the previous four years.
On several occasions, as is his right and responsibility as governor, Youngkin appointed people to empty seats on various boards of universities, including the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute. Each time, the Virginia Senate threw a fit, saying that it had rejected all 14 of Youngkin’s board picks in a June committee vote.
In July, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jonathan D. Frieden ordered the removal of eight of Youngkin’s appointees, ruling that the legislature’s authority to confirm or reject gubernatorial appointees should be protected.
Now, here we are again, as Spanberger, without so much as an explanation, creates her own opening on the Board of Visitors at Virginia Tech by showing the rector, John G. Rocovich Jr., the door. Her reason? An unspecified violation of the Code of Conduct.
On top of that, she appoints Edward H. Baine, the president of Dominion Energy Virginia, to serve as rector of Virginia Tech for the next year.
Hue and cry from the Virginia General Assembly? Hardly. If you listen closely, you can hear the crickets in the background.
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No court filings. No subpoenas. No insistence on stays and court-ordered blockages of the appointment, as happened under Youngkin. Certainly, it is the governor’s purview to fill empty seats on these boards, with the consent of the General Assembly, as members made abundantly clear during the Youngkin years. But when she creates a vacancy without even so much as an explanation, they certainly owe it to their voters to ask why—unless it was only because of the governor’s political party affiliation.
The only comment at this point from the General Assembly comes from Del. Terry Kilgore, who issued this statement: “The Governor owes the Virginia Tech community—and all Virginians—an explanation for this decision. What exactly did John Rocovich do?”
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Scott Surovell, of Fairfax County, even praised the move Thursday, posting to social media: “I am pleased the governor is going to continue to resolve the Youngkin Board of Visitors hangover and their politicization of our universities.”
Rocovich has stated that Spanberger first wrote a letter demanding his resignation, which he called “deeply offensive, legally unsupported, and wholly inconsistent with the governor’s own publicly stated principles regarding the proper relationship between the executive branch and the governance of Virginia’s public universities.”
The hypocrisy is not lost on Rocovich, who added in his official statement: “Governor Spanberger cannot simultaneously condemn political interference in university governance as an ‘aberration’ and then, within months of taking office, direct her secretary to strong-arm a sitting rector into vacating a position he holds by lawful appointment,” Rocovich wrote. “That is not reform—that is the same conduct she denounced, merely with a different political beneficiary.”
But wait, there’s more! We are just learning that the political intrigue deepens as Rockovich turns out to be Virginia 6th district congressman Ben Cline’s father-in-law! No one is sure quite how that fits into Spamberger’s depiction of “violating a code of conduct,” but then again nothing has yet.
For another juicy subplot, we already know that there are deep divides within Virginia’s Democratic Party. The governor’s rhetorical shrug in response to the raid on Sen. Louise Lucas’ office in Portsmouth has made some of these schisms more visible. But one wonders: If that’s the case, wouldn’t we see some of the same righteous indignation over Spanberger’s action—actions that make anything Youngkin did regarding the boards of these universities pale by comparison?
Whether it’s politically adept or not, firing someone from a position of eminence at one of Virginia’s top universities without so much as an explanation is one thing. But replacing him with the president of the commonwealth’s largest electric utility would certainly be worthy of at least a “whoop.” The governor may not feel we are owed an explanation about the dismissal, but why the apparent patronage to the president of Dominion Energy?
I’m hoping that Virginia Democrats remember the things they said regarding Gov. Youngkin’s management of these boards at the commonwealth’s universities and do what they claimed they were constitutionally bound to do: demand answers before any of these proceedings can go forward.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
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