Steve Burns
WMAL.com
RICHMOND – (WMAL) Virginia’s second-longest serving House Speaker will be retiring at the end of his term in January 2018. Bill Howell (R-Stafford) has served in the position since 2003. He will turn 74 in May.
Howell called serving as Speaker “the greatest professional honor of my life” at a Monday address in Richmond. He started in the House in 1988.
Howell has been at the forefront of the opposition in recent years to Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, blocking McAuliffe’s attempts at expanding Medicaid and leading a court fight to roll back McAuliffe’s move to restore voting rights to convicted felons who have been released from prison.
Howell’s personality and leadership style has been revered among Republicans, Christopher Newport University political scientist Quentin Kidd told WMAL, but he wasn’t afraid to play hardball.
“He’s congenial, and in the classic form of the way we think we want politicians to interact with each other,” Kidd said. “But he can play hard-knuckle, white-knuckle politics as good as anybody, and he’s demonstrated that with the way he’s battled Governor McAuliffe.”
Many view Majority Leader Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) as next in line for the position.
“Cox has the same kind of management and leadership style as Speaker Howell does. He also, in many ways, has the same kind of a personality,” Kidd said. “I would imagine that there would be a great deal of continuity in terms of leadership style, and continuity in terms of caucus management across the two men,” doubly important, Kidd said, depending on how this November’s race for Governor shakes out.
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