The Virginia Senate shuffled key committee assignments Friday following Sen. Adam Ebbin’s departure to join the Spanberger administration, triggering a shake-up that included Sen. Dave Marsden’s, D-Fairfax, removal from the powerful Finance and Appropriations Committee and Sen. Bryce Reeves’, R-Orange, ouster from Commerce and Labor.
Officially, Senate Democrats said that Marsden requested to leave the Appropriations Committee; however, multiple sources told Virginia Scope that Marsden made a disrespectful comment to the committee’s chair, Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, prior to a meeting.
Marsden’s alleged comment to Lucas implied that she is not heavily involved in the Appropriation Committee’s work.
Marsden and Lucas did not respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, told Virginia Scope that Marsden requested the change so that he can focus more on gaming legislation.
“General Laws allows him to be directly involved and [he] made this request while we are making committee changes due to Senator Ebbin moving on,” Surovell said.
Requesting to leave the powerful Appropriations Committee is rare. This committee gives final approval on legislation — deciding whether it will be funded — making it a coveted committee assignment.
There were concerns that the Senate Democratic Caucus was becoming divided over this conflict, but as of Thursday, it appeared they had coalesced around the decision to make these changes.
Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, shared a statement on social media about being removed from the Commerce and Labor Committee.
“I was removed from the very powerful Commerce and Labor Committee for speaking out and holding our governor accountable as the minority party,” Reeves posted, before deleting the post shortly after.
Reeves recently commented for a New York Times story, where he said he would give Gov. Abigail Spanberger “an F for working across the aisle right now” because “none of my colleagues have seen her.”
Spanberger pushed back on that claim to the NYT by showing texts that she had exchanged with Reeves.
“That tone and tenor seems to differ very significantly,” Spanberger said to the NYT, “from his direct outreach to me at the beginning of January, and the lengthy conversation we then had.”
New members
Sens. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, and Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, are now on appropriations to fill the spots of Ebbin and Marsden.
Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, is the new General Laws and Technology Chair, and Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, has been added to the committee.
Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, and Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, are now on the Commerce and Labor Committee.
Newly sworn-in Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria, is on the Agriculture Committee.
Sens. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight, Kannan Srinivasan, D-Loudoun, and Michael Jones, D-Richmond, are on the Courts of Justice Committee.
Aird is the new chair of the Local Government Committee, and Bennett-Parker, who replaced Ebbin, is a new member of the committee.
Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk, and Benett-Parker are on the Privileges and Elections Committee.
Bennett-Parker is on the Transportation Committee.