The FXBG Advance Interview with Bobby Orrock
Entering his 19th campaign, Orrock sat down with the Advance to discuss polarization, the importance of communication, and education.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Tucked away in a nondescript business park near Fredericksburg Academy is Del. Bobby Orrock’s office. When he knows people are arriving, he opens the door and greets them, rather than waiting on them to come inside and introduce themselves to his secretary. In many ways, that approach to people defines Orrock and his now 35-year-long political career. Personal, friendly, face-to-face.
On Tuesday, the Advance spent a leisurely hour with Orrock — who is now in the throws of his 19th run for the General Assembly — discussing his political career, how Richmond has changed, his approach to dealing with the frustrations of governing, and the dreaded local composite index.
FXBG Advance: What have you learned about the legislature over 35 years?
Bobby Orrock: The institution is more important than any specific legislation we’ll ever consider. No issue is more important than preserving an institution that allows for public discourse and the opportunity for public input into the process.
When I first got to the General Assembly, all bills got docketed, but many never got heard because they ran out of time. The system was very inefficient.
Back in those days, every bill that went to a committee got assigned to a subcommittee, which heard the bill, made amendments, but couldn’t kill it. It then came back to the full committee for another rehearing. That duplication meant that not every bill could be heard.
In that process, people were being left out of the discourse.
Almost every bill has a face behind it back in somebody’s district. And to me, that’s what government’s supposed to be about. Here’s your day in court, so to speak, to be heard.
That to me is the heart of government. We’ve survived because we’ve held to our founding principles. We’re servants of the people. The institution is what keeps things going, because we will come and we will go. Preserving that process that ensures continued good governance and the democratic process.
FXBG Advance: Is there a particular moment you can recall when the importance of institution hit you?
Orrock: Once I was speaking at a school, and the teacher introduced me by reading the long version of my resume. And one little girl up front said, ”Wow, you’re really powerful.” I said, no, I’m but a steward. Because I’ve been here and know the process and have developed a relationship with my peers, it has given me more potential power. But it’s never been mine, never will be mine; I’m just a steward of it while I’m here. And the measure is what I do with that in serving my constituency and the greater state of Virginia.
FXBG Advance: How are things going right now in the legislature?
Orrock: It’s the most polarized ever, from my observation. This last session especially, and even prior to that, we are seeing a greater polarization, which has made us a little more federalized, for lack of a better term. So, dissenting opinions are not even being considered frequently.
I’m supposed to represent everybody. Even though I’m a Republican and was elected by a majority, I’m supposed to represent those 40% who voted the other way.
I’ve always taken pride in being a moderate, albeit a conservative-leaning one. I have to consider the most liberal individual in the district and moderate my view as best I can to accept theirs.
Here’s how things have changed.
When I was first elected, I could go to Earl Dickinson’s office — he was a Democratic stalwart from Spotsylvania — as a podunk freshman Republican who had taken out one of his buddies, and explain how the language as it was at the time was not going to be in the best interest of everyone, and he would listen. And there would be typically amendments to the measure that made it more moderate. They would get the credit, but I was happy with that, because I would vote for it now, as before I wouldn’t.
And that’s as it should be.
Where we are now, first there’s not that same level of communication and interaction among my peers. And secondly, there’s almost no moderation.
There are always going to be votes along party lines, but the percentage of those has markedly increased, I believe, because we’re not moderating.
I got two bills out this year. That’s the lowest percentage I’ve ever gotten out. I had three bills that never got docketed. There were over 100 Republican members’ bills that never got put on the docket.
Nick Freitas asked a question on the floor one day during morning hour, “Why?” And their spokesperson’s response was “There were certain measures that don’t deserve a hearing.”
Who has the right to determine that unilaterally?
That’s the most stark change and the biggest challenge that I see to the institution.
Regardless, if any party determines that just because views are contrary to their party objective, we’re not going to hear them, then you’re shutting out 45% of the Virginia constituency.
At the end of the day, Virginia is going to be a purple state for the foreseeable future. Ergo, you’re never going to be more than 40-60 one side or the other. And so we’re not supposed to disenfranchise and ignore summary any citizen, but especially that large a constituency.
They’re supposed to have a voice.
FXBG Advance: Communication has never been easier, but our ability to be communicative has arguably never been worse. What explains this paradox?
Orrock: Communication has gotten “easier,” but it has become less personable. People don’t call the office. Written communication is great, it never gives you the same nuances of true, face-to-face communications.
That’s what’s lacking — true communication.
Consider door-to-door campaigning. It’s still I think the most effective, but it’s become less effective because people don’t want me coming to their door. There are far more no-soliciting signs, door-bell cams.
Their lives are busier. But they also feel they’ve read our stuff and don’t need to talk. Or they’ve made up their mind because of preconceived notions.
In the first Trump presidency, in the next House of Delegates race, we lost big time. We went from 62 or 63 down to 51 to 52. And that’s when we lost Northern Virginia.
There were Republican legislators who had been standing at the polls on Election Day saying afterwards that people would come to them and say, “You’ve done a good job, and I like you, but …”
The communication between them had broken down because they had gone to, I’ve got preconceived notions now, and you’re part of that camp, even though the representation of them at the state level was not that extreme.
That’s a result of people not communicating the way we should.
FXBG Advance: What would you like people to know about you that they don’t know?
Orrock: I hope there’s not much that they don’t know about me. A Free Lance-Star reporter asked me after my first term, “How was it and how did it change you?”
I said, “When I got elected, I was Bobby. What you see is what you get. If this position changes me, then it’s time for me to get out. I was elected as me, and I have to be true to me.”
I don’t presume on another term. At some point, I’m not going to be here anymore. But I’m still going to be me. Some people think I should be more assertive of the “power” that I have.
I was asked three years ago to speak to the freshman class. I said, “Congratulations, you’re in a position of high honor…. But understand, you’re one election away from a new title – that’s ‘has been.’” So the measure is what you do with the responsibility while you’re there. Is it true to your own personal values? Is it true to your constituency?… Because at the end of the day, you’re not going to be here anymore.
If people don’t know “what you see is what you get,” I hope that’s the one thing they understand. I’ve been school teacher, part-time radio announcer, part-time parts driver, volunteer rescue. Those are all parts of my life that make up how I’ve lived my life. But they’re not who I am. Who I am is an individual who, thank God for my parents, raised me to know that we’re all put here not for ourselves, but to serve our fellow man in whatever capacity.
FXBG Advance: This will be your 19th election. When you’re going through the process of deciphering if you want to take this on again …
Orrock: … I’m going to stop you there. When you say I “want to take this on again,” I have never seen this as something in my career path. I’ve felt called to it, is a better way to put it.
The broader question might be, why did I ever get into this?
In the late ‘80s I was teaching school, my wife had gone back to college, we had three young kids, and I was scratching everywhere I could to make ends meet.
I had started noting what government was doing to me instead of for me.
Our legislator at that time was Bob Ackerman. Nice man, but you never saw him. In fairness to him, the Democrats were running the show, and he didn’t need to go out and press the flesh. I got involved in the Republican party in Caroline County, and people started blowing wind up my sail.
My wife and I talked, and prayed, but it’s never something I really wanted to get into. But ever since I’ve been there, I’ve felt, OK Lord, Am I supposed to keep doing this? Life would be easier if I weren’t. But am I doing what you’re calling me to do?
FXBG Advance: Your family has a history of service. How did that shape your approach to politics?
Orrock: My dad was on the Board of Supervisors in Caroline, and he would come home mad as a hornet after a frustrating board meeting.
One occasion he came home and I was still up, and I said, “Dad, why do you put up with this crap?”
He took a heavy sigh and said, “Son, if I do what I think is in the best interest, it’s almost guaranteed I’m going to make more people angry with me then happy. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to do what over the long term is going to be everyone’s best interest as best we can.
I remember one campaign he lost, they we’re throwing all kinds of mess at him that wasn’t accurate. I said, “Dad, you got enough dirt on this dude, all the crap he’s throwing you trying to bury him, you can bury him ten times deep.”
We were standing at the fence — and this is totally the farm perspective — and he pointed to a pile of cow crap. “If I picked it up … and throw it at you, I might miss. But I can’t pick it up without getting it on myself.”
And that’s stayed with me.
FXBG Advance: How do you deal with the days when you’re mad as a hornet?
Orrock: I can’t control what you do to me, but I can control how I’m going to react to it.
My faith is the root of all that, but also my mother.
I’m the last of eight kids, and we were all raised on the farm. In my mom’s later days, she developed severe rheumatoid arthritis. It got to a point that she had become a prisoner in her own body.
One July evening it was hot as all get-out, and I walked into her room. I noticed that her big toe on her right foot was moving back and forth rhythmically. We talked, and I finally had to ask: “The big toe thing – is this the latest progression where you now have this tick?”
She took a deep sigh, and didn’t stop moving her toe.
“From the moment I woke up,” she said, “I haven’t been able to move anything that didn’t hurt, except my big toe. So that’s been my focus.”
It didn’t hit me at that moment, but as I was driving home it did. I can choose to focus on all the things that are bad, or I can choose to focus on the positives. Why waste my time on things I can’t change?
Is it fun being in the minority? No. Do I get frustrated over it? Yeah. Am I going to let it ruin my night’s sleep? No. Am I going to do what I can for my little part in trying to still change things? To do all things I can within the limitations to represent my district? Yes.
FXBG Advance: I know you’re a lifelong educator, but you’ve consistently voted against the individual local option for school construction. Why?
Orrock: This is not something the state is supposed to foist back on the local government. Education in Virginia has always been, we’re going to tax at the state level to support it, and then the locality has to put in their portion.
We’re usurping that authority by the referendum that’s been proposed.
Consider Caroline. The proposal would be acted locality by locality. If Spotsylvania passes this, given that the vast majority of retail shoppers in Caroline are coming to Spotsylvania, they’re then subsidizing the Spotsylvania school system. Even if both counties pass it, still the majority of the retail base is in Spotsylvania. So again, a disproportionate number of Caroline citizens will be going to another jurisdiction.
If you do it from the state level, you aggregate that in one pot, and you allow for those variances in retail by the local ability to generate their own revenue. That’s the whole purpose of the composite index. Caroline will never have the retail base that Spotsylvania will.
So, would I support a potential increase in the state-wide sales tax, yes. That’s the more viable alternative.
I’m not going to take a dodge and say I didn’t vote for a tax increase because what I voted for is for you to put it on yourself.
How many times do we pass things by referendum and give local government the power, and then say “I didn’t vote to raise their taxes.” Well, of course you did, because they’re going to have to, because they have to provide the service.
That’s just dodging the state’s responsibility, in my mind.
FXBG Advance: The composite index is unpopular across Virginia. How do you feel about it?
Orrock: Nobody likes the composite index, but everybody likes the philosophy behind it. Everybody recognizes that Lee County will never be able to generate sufficient revenues on their own to educate those kids, but we have just as much responsibility as a state to make sure they’re well educated.
So we’ve got to come up with a formula that recognizes those differences.
Politically it’s not popular because any formulas that have been proffered since I’ve been there end up having population-wise and voter-wise more losers than winners. The money is being generated by the large population base, and if I’m representing my constituency, they don’t want to send more of their money down to Lee County. Even though as a Commonwealth, we’re all supposed to be looking out for Lee County just the same.
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