Board of Elections chief announces departure

Board of Elections chief announces departure
Kaine didn't reappoint her at the expiration of her four-year term
BY TYLER WHITLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 14, 2007

Jean R. Jensen will step down as secretary of the State Board of Elections on May 1. A successor has not been named.

Kevin Hall, spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, said Jensen asked not to be reappointed.
Kaine did not reappoint Jensen when her four-year term expired Feb. 1. At Kaine's request, she agreed to stay on until May 1 to give the governor a chance to pick her successor.

Jensen's tenure has been widely praised by Democrats and Republicans. She is a longtime Democratic activist who once served as the executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

She was appointed to the post four years ago by then-Gov. Mark R. Warner, a fellow Northern Virginian.

Asked why she was leaving, Jensen said: "I wasn't reappointed."

Jensen announced her departure yesterday to members of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.

"All I know is that the governor is not pleased [with her]," said Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, chairman of the committee. Martin said she had done a very good job.

The secretary presides over the state's elections and election laws. The job pays $82,106 a year.
The committee, which considers changes to election laws, quickly dispatched two proposed constitutional amendments that would have brought far-reaching changes to Virginia governance.

Recall amendment killed One, proposed by Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr., R-Hanover, would have allowed Virginia's governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general to be recalled from office if 25 percent of registered voters sign a recall petition.

Hargrove said voters should have a chance to replace a bad office-holder. Opponents said this would put Virginia on the road to a California-style initiative-and-referendum type of government.

Regulations veto killed -- A second proposal, by Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, would have allowed the General Assembly to veto regulations. Griffith said the plan would put the assembly on a more equal footing with the executive branch.

The 8-7 vote against the proposal drew a stinging rebuke from Martin.

"You will never get a two-term governor now," he said, looking at the committee's Democrats.
The governor's office opposed the proposed amendment.

Ban on fundraising events killed -- The committee also killed a proposal that would have barred legislators from attending party fundraising events during the legislative session. The plan was aimed primarily at the Democratic Party of Virginia's top fundraising event, the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, which is held in February while the assembly is in session.