Character has often been describes as doing the right thing when no one is looking. In the case of Speaker Howell, character is sometimes doing the right thing when everyone is looking and it takes courage.
Today Speaker Howell proved his mettle by voting the sneak Republican plan to redistrict not germane. According to the Washington Post:
House Speaker William J. Howell, one of Richmond’s most reliable Republican votes, bucked his own party Wednesday to derail a Senate redistricting plan that could have handed the GOP control of that chamber for decades.
Howell (Stafford) used a procedural ruling to kill the new Senate map, resisting pressure from his caucus and Senate Republicans, who assured him that state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) was prepared to back the plan.
