Mark Earley: Joining the Virginia Senate

"Well, when I arrived, because there had never been nine Republicans before, somebody on the Democratic side was going to have to move from their seat, move over one, shift to the right. And apparently no one wanted to give up their seat... [The Senate clerk] walked me around to the Democratic side of the aisle all the way to the very end on the back row in the back corner... And to be honest with you, it probably turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me as a freshman senator because the place was run by Democrats. I sat with them. Half the time, they forgot I was a Republican. So I got more bills passed as a freshman Republican senator than anybody else did.” -- Mark Earley, Class of 1982, on joining the Virginia Senate Dementi-Foster, photographer. The Senate of Virginia, 1988. Courtesy, Library of Virginia. Mark Earley (top row, second from right) joined the Virginia Senate in 1988. Virginia’s ‘citizen legislature’ was designed from its beginning to be a part-time legislative body, meeting no more than 60 days in any given year. This allows its members to hold other jobs and to remain actively involved in their districts while writing the laws that impact those communities. Earley continued to work as an attorney during his ten years in the Senate and was able to bring his family with him to Richmond during the annual legislative session from January to March. He left the Senate in 1997 to become Attorney General of Virginia. Listen to Mark Earley's oral history online.