08:07 AM EDT on Thursday, April 22, 2004

Associated Press

WAKEFIELD (AP) -- Most legislators were not in attendance, but their state budget deadlock in Richmond was not far from the minds of those attending Southside Virginia's largest political festival Wednesday.

And it was on the lips of the Shad Planking's featured speaker, Larry J. Sabato, who referred to the General Assembly as "the Flat Earth Society."

The highly traditional gathering broke with tradition this year and gave its vaunted speaker's spot to a non-politician: Sabato, a commentator and University of Virginia political scientist.

Sabato, mixing humor with commentary, said "the last sad 100 days in Richmond" resemble more the "Jerry Springer Show" than an assembly that used to pride itself on its civility. Thursday marks the 100th day of a scheduled 60-day session.

Sabato blamed the legislature's inability to reach a budget compromise on redistricting. He said legislators are in such safe districts that candidates do not have to answer to the electorate.

"Voters become apathetic when they perceive that elections are over before they begin," Sabato said.

A nonpartisan redistricting system would make Virginia's politics more competitive and "prevent more of these horrible legislative deadlocks that threaten to embarrass our justifiably proud state again and again," he said.

But if Sabato was critical of the assembly's budget impasse, many in the crowd supported it.

"Whatever it takes that we don't get to the point where we will have to raise taxes some more," said Bob Johnson of Newport News.

Holt Livesay of Surry agreed, praising the House of Delegates for holding out so long against a tax increase.

But another observer, who declined to be identified, said the Republican legislators have embarrassed themselves.

"They have taken a doomed Tim Kaine candidacy and made it into a horse race," he said.

The lieutenant governor is likely to be the Democratic nominee for governor facing Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, the likely GOP nominee.

The annual gathering, at which shad is nailed to planks and cooked for hours over an open fire, is sponsored by the Wakefield Ruritan Club. Proceeds go to local charities.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)