Collaboration, controversy as college kids claim Virginia Capitol in simulation

Heciel Nieves Bonilla, Assistant News Editor

College students from all over the commonwealth came to downtown Richmond last week for several days of power-broking, debate, compromise and deception in the second annual Virginia Government Simulation. 

The event simulated a Virginia General Assembly legislative session, in which bills are proposed, amended and voted on. Student participants spent their time in committee meetings and on the floor of the House of Delegates, deliberating issues that often reflected real-life legislation. 

Program director and VCU political science professor Amanda Wintersieck said she believes the increase in participants and formal structure made students take the simulation more seriously. 

“I’ve had multiple students from different parts of the state tell me this is the first time they’ve been to Richmond,” Wintersieck said. “And what a wonderful experience, to be able to come to your state capitol and be involved … particularly in a state like Virginia, where our lives are so subsumed by what’s happening north of us in D.C.”

The program is sponsored by VCU’s Institute for Democratic Empowerment and Pluralism, also directed by Wintersieck, who described its goals as teaching civic engagement and engendering skills.

“There’s a lot of skills being learned here, not just parliamentary procedure and how a bill becomes law, but how you negotiate with people that you barely know,” Wintersieck said. 

The program selected 97 student participants, though absences resulted in 81 total voting delegates. In real life, the House of Delegates has 100 members and the Senate, which students did not simulate, has 40. 

Some students were assigned to the Republican side to balance the simulation, as few chose otherwise to play the GOP. 

This year’s more developed leadership structure was truer to the real-life General Assembly and included party leaders and whips, as well as a Democratic speaker of the house, Republican governor and Republican lieutenant governor — the latter played by University of Richmond student Aaron Ress.

“It used to be a lot more one-on-one dealing between delegates,” Lt. Gov. Ress said. “Party leadership has a lot more control and we’re making sweeping deals with each other.”

Those deals were made after a near-universally expressed wish for bipartisanship towards the beginning of the program — one that waned as the program went on. 

Many bills passed the committee stage near-unanimously, but many others died to either Democratic opposition or Republican opposition with some Democrats crossing party lines. 

Democrats — who hold a majority both in the simulation and in real life — dominated some committees, but faced defeats in others.
In the relatively balanced House Education Committee, Republicans successfully defeated bills promoting sex education and reducing absenteeism in K-12.
During debate on the sex-ed bill, Republican delegates first removed language referencing abortion and unwanted pregnancy, and then successfully defeated it entirely with the help of one breakaway Democrat. 

Every other bill from the education committee was either tabled, voted down or vetoed by the governor — a resounding victory for Republicans in the session. 

The most controversial piece of legislation from the session was a GOP bill to disallow utility bills, bank statements, government checks or paychecks to be used as identification when voting. 

Democrats defeated the bill, but some students anonymously told The CT they were disappointed the bill was allowed on the floor after some Republicans were caught admitting it would disenfranchise Black voters. They felt the behavior broke the simulation’s code of conduct. 

Democratic House Whip Gabriella Czymbor said she felt positively about cooperation with Republicans on Thursday morning, but acknowledged voter ID policy would be a point of contention. By Friday, she said her caucus had a new strategy. 

“We’re steamrolling the Republicans,” Del. Czymbor said. “We’re keeping them in the dark until we get to the floor because we hold the majority … They know they don’t have any leverage, so they try to create leverage while threatening to kill bills that would normally pass bipartisan.”

Republican delegates generally voted unanimously for much of the session in a way that Democrats struggled to match on the first day of committees. Del. Czymbor recognized that and attempted to correct it on the final day of voting, while describing a different strategy when it came to Voter ID. 

“We knew that we were gonna kill it,” Del. Czymbor said. “We made a deal with the Republicans to pass voter ID through the committee and they wouldn’t veto [a bill securing government shutdown funding for] SNAP benefits and Medicaid. But I only made a deal for committee. So when it got to the floor, they were very upset that we did not pass it through the floor. But that wasn’t the deal I made.”

Many students used the simulation to engage with subjects they are passionate about beyond the halls of the Capitol. 

Third-year Hampden-Sydney College student Alexander Albright, while presenting a bill increasing funding for mental health care, told a personal anecdote about a colleague who took his own life in high school. 

Another delegate told her story of being a recovered addict and 12-time felon — all for legislation to support rehabilitation and treatment for non-violent drug offenders. 

Those bills, along with most criminal justice reform bills, passed the main floor near-unanimously on the last day of the simulation. 

Bridgewater College student Elizabeth D’Aurora said she was glad people of different perspectives found common ground on rehabilitation, and hopes to effect change in the real world as a lawyer. She said she is glad she attended the simulation and felt positively about many of the people she met.

“I think the simulation is very accurate when it comes to the world of politics, I’ll put it that way,” D’Aurora said. “You take it however you want.”