S. Vance Wilkins, Jr.

Infobox State Representative
name = S. Vance Wilkins
honorific-suffix = Jr.


state_delegate = Virginia
district = 24th
term_start = 1978
term_end = 2002
preceded = Don Pendleton
succeeded = Ben Cline
speaker = 53rd
term_start2 = January 12, 2000
term_end2 = June 15, 2002
predecessor2 = Thomas W. Moss, Jr.
successor2 = William J. Howell
birth_date = birth date and age | 1936 | 8 | 12
birth_place = Amherst County, Virginia
party = Republican
spouse =
residence =
alma_mater = Virginia Tech
occupation = General contractor
religion =
branch = United States Air Force
serviceyears = 1958-1960

Shirley Vance Wilkins, Jr. (born August 12, 1936 in Amherst County, Virginia) is a retired American politician of the Republican Party. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1978-2002. In 2000 he became the first non-Democratic Speaker since the Readjuster Party controlled the House in the early 1880s.

Wilkins was considered the driving force in the expansion of Republican House membership in the 1980s and 1990s, especially after he became minority leader in 1992. [cite web | last = Loper | first = George | title = Virginia GOP: The Rise and Fall of Vance Wilkins | date = 2002-07 | url = http://george.loper.org/archives/2002/Jul/55.html | accessdate = 2008-08-14] In his first term as Speaker, he oversaw the redistricting of the House after the 2000 census which led to an increase in the Republican majority from 52-47 (1 independent) to 64-34 (2 independents) after the November 2001 election.

Wilkins' tenure as Speaker ended early in his second term. First, in March 2002, Republican Party of Virginia chair Ed Matricardi was accused of eavesdropping on a Democratic Party conference call. Republican state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore began an investigation, which soon expanded to include Wilkins' chief of staff, Claudia D. Tucker, and brought suspicion on Wilkins himself. [cite news |last = Masters | first = Brooke A. | coauthors = Shear, Michael D. | title = U.S. Joins Probe of Phone Snooping; Republicans Investigated for Allegedly Listening to Democrats' Conference Calls | work = The Washington Post | page = B4 | date = 2002-05-09]

Then, on June 7, 2002, the Washington Post reported that executives of Wilkins' former construction company had revealed that Wilkins had paid $100,000 to a former political staffer, Jennifer L. Thompson, to keep quiet about "unwelcome sexual advances" by Wilkins. [cite news |last = Melton | first = R.H. | title = Va. Speaker Settles Sex Complaint; Wilkins Paid Woman at Least $100,000, Denies Accusations | work = The Washington Post | page = A1 | date = 2002-06-07] Under pressure from Kilgore and his own caucus, Wilkins resigned as Speaker a week later, and resigned from the House shortly afterward.

Notes

External links

* [http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/6d7fad96a2f89a6785256c23006d3f89/22de9ca8cf6b40d585256580006908a3?OpenDocument Virginia House of Delegates: Historical bio for S. Vance Wilkins]