Virginia Capitol Connections Magazine
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Richard L. “Dick” Saslaw
Delegate 1976-1980 • Senator 1980-2024
By Eva Teig Hardy
In a speech to his Senate colleagues in February 2023, Senator Dick Saslaw announced his retirement from the Virginia Senate after a 48-year tenure that was both exciting and consequential. Sen. Saslaw had earlier spent four years in the House of Delegates and had gathered much experience in listening and learning from long-time leaders in that body who resisted opinions and initiatives from the newly-arrived young delegates. He and others were part of an undercurrent of rebellion in the House against the established older leadership. After 4 years as a backbencher in the House, Senator Saslaw was ready to move to the Senate and take on a more central leadership role.
Who was this young senator from the northern suburbs of Fairfax who would eventually become one of the most powerful and longest-serving legislators in the Virginia Senate? He was born in Washington D.C. in 1940. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army (1958-1960), then attended the University of Maryland where he received a B.S. in Economics. He married Eleanor Berman in August 1968. They have a daughter, Jennifer, two grandchildren, and a son-in-law who brings them joy and love.
Senator Saslaw’s personal qualities were reflected in the many aspects of his public service, including strong loyalty, humor, intensity, and purpose. There are hundreds of Dick Saslaw statements and stories that have been saved, relished, and repeated over the years within the halls of the General Assembly building and the Capitol. Within the General Assembly family, these stories reflected the force of the Saslaw personality, his strength as a leader, and his knowledge of the institution. A biting humor was always a part of his stories, But his love of the Senate precluded him from insulting or demeaning his colleagues. He told lobbyists and state officials in the strongest terms exactly how he felt about an issue, and it was hard to change his mind without data and stakeholder support. He encouraged stakeholder meetings where groups of stakeholders on various sides of an issue or legislative policy could come together and reach an agreement. He would insist that adversaries talk to each other and he would invite them to meet in his office where he could listen to the conversation and direct it towards some consensus.
After graduation from college, Senator Saslaw went into the gas station business, eventually acquiring and running several gas stations in Northern Virginia. It was the day-to-day hands-on running of these stations that gave him the experience of representing businesses large and small as one of the few senators who was not a lawyer or banker, but a small business owner. He would draw on this experience again and again during his terms as Minority and then Majority Leader of the Senate. He became known as the voice of business in the state Senate, sometimes causing political criticism but always based on his convictions and first-hand knowledge.
Senator Saslaw was first elected leader of the Democrats in the Senate in 1996. He then served as Senate Majority leader several times alternating with Sen. Tommy Norment as the leader when the Republicans took control. His most recent election as Senate Majority Leader was in 2020. One of the hallmarks of his tenure as Minority or Majority leader was to work closely with Senator Norment and other Republican leaders in maintaining the strength of the Senate as the premier body of the General Assembly. While Senator Saslaw had good relationships with both Democratic and Republican Speakers of the House, the Senate leadership, whether Democratic or Republican, maintained a posture of superiority, offering a better long-term vision for the Commonwealth compared to the House. This rivalry between chambers had gone on for decades and is reflected not just in the Virginia General Assembly but in other state legislatures as well as in Congress.
Senator Saslaw has served on many key committees and commissions. Most notably, he chaired the Committee on Commerce and Labor, a committee with vast power over Virginia businesses of all types. He also served on the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, and the Committees on Education and Health, Judiciary, and Rules. As a member of all these committees, Senator Saslaw attended and vocally participated, and in the case of Commerce and Labor, was a strong Chair and proponent for business.
Throughout his tenure in the Senate, Senator Saslaw also served on several key study commissions including the Committee on Electric Utility Regulation, Committee on District Courts, and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates. Two key commissions he served on were Health Insurance Reform and Local Government Fiscal Stress.
Two areas of controversy faced by Senator Saslaw related to electric utility regulation and payday lending. In the late 90s, the committee on Electric Utility Restructuring, after years of study, deregulated and then in 2007 re-regulated the utilities with legislation that was complex and intensely debated by scores of lobbyists and stakeholders. In 2023, Senator Saslaw was the patron of the Senate bill that brought a new balance of regulation to account for future growth, consumer refunds, and renewable energy for the Commonwealth
Payday lending was another issue that was controversial and intense among the various proponents and opponents. Senator Saslaw was the patron of several bills on behalf of the industry that were fought by community organizations that were fearful of individuals unable to survive high interest rates.
Senator Saslaw was a strong proponent of education, civil rights, a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage, and other human rights issues of importance to his constituents.
Senator Saslaw understood the institution that was the Senate, and he further understood that a two-party working relationship was critical for Commonwealth goals to be achieved. He will be remembered for his convictions about public service and his willingness to stand and fight for his beliefs. He will be remembered for his jokes and humorous stories. He will leave the Senate a stronger working body. As he said in his final statement, “My sell-by date has been reached.”
Eva Teig Hardy is the retired Executive Vice President of Dominion Resources. She previously served in a variety of Cabinet positions including Labor and Health and Human Resources as well as the State Council on Higher Education.
Kenneth R. Plum
Delegate 1978-1979; 1982-2024
By Bernie Henderson
Members of the Virginia House of Delegates are issued license plates with numbers corresponding to their seniority and many look forward to steadily receiving lower numbers every couple of years. The holder of license plate number 1 hasn’t changed often. Delegate Kenneth R. Plum has had it since 2014. Ken’s 22 terms — that’s 44 years — makes him the senior Delegate. According to the House Clerk’s office, he is the second longest-serving member of the House of Burgesses/House of Delegates in its 404 years as a body.
Ken’s historic length of service as a member of the oldest continuous legislative body in the Western Hemisphere is secondary to the quality of his service. Unlike many elected officials who endeavor to take full credit for every good thing they ever supported, Ken only talks of offering good ideas and of working as a team member to effectuate better government. He frequently has been among the first to propose a forward-thinking concept, realizing that the most profound ideas take a lot of time to be appreciated. He does not care whose name is on a bill or amendment; he is content to transform good ideas into public policy, no matter how long it takes or who gets the credit.
Ken introduced a bill in 1982 to create a process for non-partisan independent redistricting. This was the first such bill introduced in the General Assembly. Even though legislation was finally enacted in 2020 for this purpose, and someone else received credit as chief patron, Ken enthusiastically supported its passage as if he was its chief patron.
Despite enormous and potentially devastating political headwinds until recently, Ken courageously opposed the death penalty throughout his career and he consistently opposed every proposed expansion of its application.
Ken has made a difference in Virginia and the world, on two important health initiatives. He introduced the first legislation in Virginia to combat Alzheimer’s Disease, creating a commission and a fund to promote its treatment and ultimate cure. He was a relentless advocate for research in metabolic disease. His bill addressing biotinidase deficiency was the first legislation on this subject in the world according to the March of Dimes, and his bill is the prototype for legislation that has been enacted throughout the world.
Legislators often develop specific areas of interest. Ken, perhaps because he is a career educator, has constantly developed expertise in an ever-expanding number of areas, like public education, transportation, conservation, health care, technology, public safety, and even agriculture (there’s a big constituency in Reston for that one!). He wanted to have first-hand knowledge of all the important issues before him.
Legislators are categorized in many ways: Democrat or Republican; liberal, moderate or conservative; urban, suburban or rural; but the most significant distinction is show-horse or work-horse, and Ken is the epitome of the work-horse — always more interested in making a difference than a headline.
Ken sets the standard for keeping in close and meaningful contact with constituents. He didn’t invent regular and frequent town hall meetings, but you won’t find anyone who has done them better. These were not just close to election time or when the legislature was not in session. Even during General Assembly sessions, Ken would invite government officials to address his town hall meetings and personally drive them from Richmond to his district for these meetings and return to Richmond in the wee hours of the morning. Ken is one of the best at producing weekly electronic newsletters for his constituents.
Ken has been an eyewitness and participant in the enormous progress of Virginia’s government becoming more representative and accessible to all Virginians. He celebrates that there are now five times the number of non-Caucasians and five times the number of women members of the General Assembly than when he arrived and he looks forward with excited anticipation to those numbers increasing significantly in the future. He has promoted technology as a tool to enable the public to know what their public servants are doing through access to information and championed policy changes, such as requiring recorded votes throughout the legislative process, to make legislative information available to promote a more perfect representative democracy.
Ken is the prototype of a citizen-legislator. He points to a fourth-grade field trip to Jamestown as his motivation to serve in elective office. This was where he realized that public service in a democracy was not the exclusive province of a socially elite privileged class. Being from a modest working-class family, as he grew to adulthood, he became even more confident that he, and others like him, were fully qualified to serve in government. As a career educational administrator, unlike most other legislators who had a significant stream of income whether they were at their “day job” or the General Assembly, Ken didn’t get paid by his employer when he was performing legislative duties, he just received the modest legislative stipend. He does not regret this, saying the satisfaction of serving always more than offsets the financial sacrifice.
Ken and his wife, Jane, will be using their newfound free time to travel. He will also continue to teach at the Life Long Learning Institute of George Mason University, write, and give greater attention to his fascinating garden of native Virginia plants (there’s that manifestation of agricultural interest even in Reston).
Ken’s advice to aspiring candidates for elective office is to become active in community activities before running; get to know as many of your future constituents as possible. Elective office should not be an entry-level community service.
Because of Ken Plum’s long and effective service in the House of Delegates, Virginia is in a much better place than when he began his first term. Long after his term ends in January of 2024, countless Virginians who will have never heard of Ken Plum will continue to have their lives enhanced because of his accomplishments, and that is the highest and most well-deserved tribute that a modest statesman like Ken Plum will find enormously and sufficiently satisfying.
Bernie Henderson is the President Emeritus at Woody Funeral Home and Cremation Service.
