Only on 10: Del. Scott reflects on first term as House speaker

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The remarkable irony of this story is the city of Portsmouth that has so many issues it’s dealing with has produced the two most powerful leaders in the Virginia General Assembly.

The center of power has shifted from Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads and Portsmouth, and political leaders around the Commonwealth not only know that, but they have also felt it.

Only on 10, we sat down for a one-on-one interview with Virginia House Speaker Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth).

He made history in January becoming the first African American Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

WAVY TV: “Mr. Speaker”

SPEAKER SCOTT: “Sounds good” — sounds good from Scott, sworn in as Virginia’s first African American Speaker of the House of Delegates Jan. 10, and he has a checklist of accomplishments.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be coming into Hampton Roads to our port, our industrialization program, to our community-based organizations that are doing violence, interruption, Operation Cease Fire,” Scott said.

He’s most proud that, in the House of Delegates, he produced a bipartisan budget.

“We had a bipartisan budget — 11 Republicans joined my Democratic colleagues and voted for this budget,” Scott said.

Scott thinks the Northern Virginia arena deal got way too much attention from Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

“But he’s a businessman by nature, a dealmaker,” Scott said, “and I think some of the things that he was trying to do, he was trying to entice so he could get that arena in Northern Virginia.”

Last week, 10 On Your Side interviewed Youngkin, who’s disappointed the Senate did not include funding for the arena.

“This $12 billion economic development opportunity that creates 30,000 new jobs creates so much cash across the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said.

Scott is now worried about the veto session and cautious about what might happen.

“I hope he doesn’t exercise that as a petulant child in being angry and upset over the arena,” Scott said. “I hope it’s not payback for that. I hope that he will exercise his duty with due care.”

The Governor also told 10 On Your Side that “we are not going to have tax increases for Virginians. We can still fund key priorities like education, law enforcement, and behavioral health.”

Said Scott: “What the governor may be upset about is that we did not give tax cuts to multibillionaires. We did not give tax cuts to multimillionaires. We made sure that we continued to make our system as fair as possible.”

Two sides divided.

They call it politics. Scott summed up this way.

“You know, one thing that I’ve learned as an attorney in negotiation, you never let people know what you care most about, and so, I’m not going to let the governor know what I most care about, but I know what he cares most about — the doggone arena,” Scott added with a laugh.

Swearing in as speaker Jan. 10 — a little known fact

On Jan. 10, we captured the warm embrace, mother and son moments before Scott was sworn-in as Virginia’s first African American Speaker of the House of Delegates.

A little-known fact — Scott asked 10 on Your Side to sit with his mother, Helen, for the swearing in. She was in a bulky wheelchair. We were in the back of the chamber on the House floor sitting together, but it seemed wrong and did not look right that the mother of the speaker was in the back of the room.

We then heard that the Speaker wanted his mother sitting at the top of the aisle in full view of all, which is where she ended up. She was then in exactly the right place to watch her son become the first African American to become the Speaker of the House of Delegates.

During his tight embrace with his mother, they both were emotional. We asked him what was going on.

“Well, it’s all of the thoughts of growing up as a kid,” Scott said, “all of the adversity that I faced, that she faced, that she helped me overcome and she overcame.”

Scott’s story is one of redemption. He served seven years in prison on federal drug charges.

“People only usually see the result,” Scott said. “They don’t see all of the work that it took to get there and the perseverance that it takes to stay focused on your goals and not give up.”

How does he feel now that the first session as Speaker is under his belt.

“I feel like the city of Portsmouth is finally getting its fair share,” Scott said. “I think it’s some real positive light.”

The big win for Scott and State Sen. Louise Lucas?

Toll relief.

“I want to say we worked on toll relief,” Scott said. “We put millions of dollars, almost $90 million, into toll relief for families making under $60,000 a year.”

And he said there’s more to come in helping pay down millions in debt and fines.

“The things that we’re trying to do is figure out a way that we can get an agreement with Elizabeth River to have some of that forgiven,” Scott said, “but obviously, we’re going to pay some money. The state has got to pay some money to take that down.”

He thinks he succeeded most in bringing all 100 members of the House of Delegates together, and to make the process fair.

“I wanted to make sure that everyone had the opportunity to speak,” Scott said, “to have their voices be heard, because I think our 100 members were elected by their constituents and their constituents, sent them here to voice their views.”

The General Assembly will have a chance to override the governor’s vetoes and amendments when it reconvenes for its one-day “veto session” April 17.

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