McAuliffe also vetoed $20 million in funding for about 35 vacant or new judgeships, as well as language that would prevent him from making judicial appointments when the assembly is not in session.

“This language is plainly an attempt to significantly limit the power of the governor and is thus unacceptable,” he said.

House Republicans called that and other vetoes “petty and politically motivated.”

“The continuity and operation of our judicial system is of paramount importance and should not be subject to political gamesmanship,” they said in a statement issued by the speaker’s office.

Legislation to fill and expand judgeships was carried in the Senate by that chamber’s Republican leader, Thomas W. Norment Jr., R-James City, who engineered the GOP budget coup last week.

Norment also was the chief advocate of a $600,000 appropriation to allow Petersburg and Chesterfield County schools to reach a cooperative agreement for the county to help the troubled city school system. McAuliffe vetoed the appropriation, which neither locality requested.

Asked whether the two vetoes were aimed at Norment, McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said, “They were bad ideas.”