The Mess In Virginia

[GreyhoundFan]

I figured I'd start this thread to discuss the absolute shitstorm going on in Virginia instead of clogging the Governor thread, since the situation has gone past the governor's mansion. To recap:

• Democratic Governor Ralph Northam's med school yearbook from 1984 shows a picture on his page with a person in a KKK outfit and another in blackface. He initially apologized, then denied the picture was of him. Oh, and his nickname in his college yearbook was "coonman". No, I couldn't make that up.
• Democratic Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax has now been accused of sexual assault and/or rape by two women.
• Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring announced that in 1980, as a college student, he appeared with makeup to look like a rapper.
• A Republican state senator edited yearbooks with racist images and slurs.

[infooverload]

You know what I find interesting is all this info came out after Northam's late term abortion statements, which several on the right states amounted to infanticide. I have not read the article where the statements were made, so I can't comment on what he stated in context of the interview. This information was publicly available and why didn't it come out earlier. The whole thing as the original poster stated is a real shit storm. Meanwhile the Republicans will gain more state legislature power, so we will see how this ultimately plays out.

[Cartmann99]

I keep expecting to hear that Corey Stewart is trying to use the situation to his advantage. 

[fraurosena]

Who is Corey Stewart?

I agree with @infooverload that the timing of these things becoming public is remarkable. That said, these men actually did  these things. So although the timing is rather synchronous, they were stupid racist idiots and/or felons for doing what they did. They should all step down.

That said.. what if they were to all step down? @GreyhoundFan, what happens then? Are new officials appointed? By whom? Or will there be new elections? If the latter, could this be the reason behind the synchronicity... because the GOP believes they would stand to gain, perhaps?

[onekidanddone]

12 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Who is Corey Stewart?

I agree with @infooverload that the timing of these things becoming public is remarkable. That said, these men actually did  these things. So although the timing is rather synchronous, they were stupid racist idiots and/or felons for doing what they did. They should all step down.

That said.. what if they were to all step down? @GreyhoundFan, what happens then? Are new officials appointed? By whom? Or will there be new elections? If the latter, could this be the reason behind the synchronicity... because the GOP believes they would stand to gain, perhaps?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corey_Stewart

I am not doubting the accusations against Virginia's top three are true, but do cast shade on all this coming out at once. In my opinion his is some coordinated attack. Somebody has been sitting on this information for a long time and BLAM pulled the lever seeing as this is an election year in the state.

[GreyhoundFan]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Who is Corey Stewart?

I agree with @infooverload that the timing of these things becoming public is remarkable. That said, these men actually did  these things. So although the timing is rather synchronous, they were stupid racist idiots and/or felons for doing what they did. They should all step down.

That said.. what if they were to all step down? @GreyhoundFan, what happens then? Are new officials appointed? By whom? Or will there be new elections? If the latter, could this be the reason behind the synchronicity... because the GOP believes they would stand to gain, perhaps?

The speaker of the house, who is a repub would become governor if all three step down or are removed from office. I was reading something the other day reminding us that every vote counts because the repubs maintained a one person majority in the house of delegates thanks to the tie in one race that was ultimately decided by a blind drawing.

And I agree that the timing is quite suspect. All seats in the house of delegates and many senatorial seats are up for election this November, so scandals now will lead to a tougher road for Dems in November.

[Dandruff]

Didn't an ultra-conservative group "out" some of the info?  I'm pretty sure there's no shortage of dirt on Republican candidates, and others, so let's see what comes out of the woodwork over the next few weeks.  I'm thinking that the Republicans are hoping to have Democratic candidates in VA lose a good chunk of the black vote in November, which would obviously help the Republicans.  These scandals also provide distraction from the Mueller investigations and the looming possibility of another shutdown next week.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good analysis: "What could happen next in Virginia: A flowchart"

Spoiler

A week ago, the future of Virginia’s governor’s mansion seemed fairly obvious: Gov. Ralph Northam (D) would resign in the wake of the emergence of a racist photo from his medical school yearbook, and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) would take over.

But it’s been a long week. Now it seems more likely that Fairfax will resign, following multiple allegations of sexual assault against him. Northam seems to be prepared to dig in, perhaps frustrating no one more than Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D), who, as second in line to the governor’s seat, would have seemed to be well positioned if both Northam and Fairfax stumbled. Of course, his own history of appearing in blackface also put Herring on the rocks, leaving third-in-line Speaker of the House Kirk Cox (R) in a suddenly advantageous position.

With so much up in the air in the state, we decided to put together a flowchart showing how the dominoes might fall — if any do. We’re grateful to A.E. Dick Howard, Warner-Booker distinguished professor of international law at the University of Virginia and executive director of Virginia’s Commission on Constitutional Revision, for his patience with multiple, out-of-the-blue emailed questions as things got ever murkier.

Let’s begin.

Let’s start with the (for now) more likely branch: Fairfax resigns. If he does, Northam can appoint a new lieutenant governor, who will serve until a special election this November.

Remember, though: Northam might also still resign. If he does so before he appoints a new lieutenant governor, then Herring gets the call. If he resigns after appointing a new lieutenant governor, then, in theory, that person might become governor.

But not necessarily. Howard explained in an email, using a hypothetical appointed Lt. Gov. Smith:

“[O]ne could make an argument that allowing Smith to become Governor would defeat the intention of Article V, Section 16. That section lays out in great detail succession to the office of Governor,” he wrote. “To allow the process of resignation and the filling of vacancies to result in the installation of a Governor who lacked any mandate of the people would be inconsistent with Section 7’s purpose and structure. I can imagine the argument, therefore, that the careful and specific process laid out in Section 16 would control over the general provision in Section 7.”

Howard helped draft the current constitution, so he’s probably more familiar with its sections than you are. What he’s saying, in essence, is that the elevation of someone to the office who has no mandate from the state’s voters would violate the spirit of the articulated succession system. That succession system might be determined (by a court, presumably) to hold more weight than Northam’s handpicked lieutenant governor, and Herring would, again, be appointed governor.

Now, if Herring were to resign, Cox would be tapped (unless Herring, too, appointed a lieutenant governor, sparking the same constitutional debate as outlined by Howard above). If for some reason Cox were to resign — since you never know these days — the constitution stipulates that the House of Delegates would simply elect a new governor.

If we go back to the top, we see that the branch in which Northam resigns first looks much the same as the one if Fairfax resigns first. It all comes down to where the series of resignations stops — and if the appointed lieutenant governor can pass constitutional muster.

There’s another option, too: That our hyperactive news cycle will move on from the travails of Virginia’s politicians and all four men remain where they are for the duration of their terms. Weirdly, that’s probably the least likely scenario of all.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Loveday]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Technically, he's right, but just barely. When the first Africans were brought here, there weren't any slave laws yet, so in those first years they were treated more as indentured servants and were supposedly given the same chance for freedom as white indentured servants. But that didn't last long, as we all know, and as Governor Northam surely knows. And of course, those '20 and odd' Africans didn't come here of their own free will looking for a better life. They were dragged here, stolen from a Portuguese SLAVE ship by the English. They were given zero choice in the matter. A lot like slavery, if you ask me, Governor.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Four staffers working for Va. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) quit their jobs Monday"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — A series of staffers working for Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D), either in his government office or for his political action committee, resigned Monday, leaving him with just a skeleton crew as he battles calls for his resignation amid allegations he sexually assaulted two women.

Fairfax’s policy director, Adele McClure and scheduler Julia Billingsly both departed Monday, as did the two employees of his We Rise Together political action committee, David Mills and Courtney McCargo, said his spokeswoman Lauren Burke. Mills is a former executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia and is married to state Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond), the vice chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, which has called on Fairfax to step down.

The departures were first reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Burke declined to say why four employees left their jobs. “This is a part-time office, so it’s not a big staff to begin with,” Burke said.

"The lieutenant governor appreciates the amazing service of his former staff members," Burke said in a statement she later emailed. "Their work and dedication was incredible. He certainly wishes them well and appreciates their service to the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Lawrence Roberts, chief of staff for Fairfax who remains on the job, said the incessant pressure of the past two weeks is taking a toll on employees.

"The pressure of constant incoming press, political and calls -- our phones ring every five seconds and just trying to clear your voicemail is impossible," Roberts said. He said those who left had individual reason but were not related to Fairfax's performance or abilities. Those who left were valuable, he said but he said he believes he could hire replacements "if we have the time and space to make intelligent decisions." 

"The lieutenant governor's office is a tiny office," he said. "The governor's office has 100,000 state employees. The lieutenant governor has four. So half his staff remains, and his two most senior people remain." 

Meanwhile, the law firm where Fairfax has been a partner since last September, Morrison & Foerster, has hired an outside firm to conduct its own investigation into the allegations against Fairfax, and Fairfax has taken a paid leave of absence while it is pending, the firm said.

Duke University, where Fairfax earned a bachelor’s degree, last week asked him to step down from the Sanford School of Public Policy Board of Visitors until the allegations are resolved.

In a telephone interview with The Washington Post on Sunday night, as fellow Democrats considered beginning impeachment proceedings against him, Fairfax repeated his claim that he did not sexually assault his two accusers or anyone else.

The two women deserve to be heard, but at the same time, he deserves due process, Fairfax said.

“Even in the most difficult times, including ones like these, that’s when it’s most important to adhere to our highest values as Americans,” he said. “And due process is at the heart of our constitutional democracy in order to get to the truth and be true to what we are as Americans. . . . Everyone deserves to be heard. . . . Even when faced with those allegations, I am still standing up for everyone’s right to be heard. But I’m also standing up for due process.”

House Democrats held a conference call later Sunday night and decided to slow down the impeachment effort amid questions about the proper procedure and viability of such a plan, given that the alleged offenses — which Fairfax describes as consensual — did not take place during his tenure as lieutenant governor.

Fairfax sounded upbeat and relaxed during the interview. Asked whether he was going to resign, he said flatly, “No.”

He spent the weekend in Northern Virginia with his family. He and his wife went to services at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria on Sunday morning, where he said they were well received. Their pastor recognized the couple was in attendance but made no reference to the scandal, Fairfax said.

“It was a really moving and uplifting celebration,” he said. “It’s a place of comfort. And then my wife and I were recognized in the church . . . we were overwhelmed with emotion and the outpouring of support, and all the words of support.”

He said he and his wife, a dentist he married years after the two alleged assaults, “continue to be strong and lean on our faith.”

Fairfax has previously suggested that he was the victim of a smear campaign. Asked in the interview who might be behind such an effort and why the two accusers might make false allegations, he said only that he was “laser focused” on doing his job as lieutenant governor and “getting the truth out.”

“I did not sexually assault Meredith Watson, Vanessa Tyson or anyone else, and the truth will help to confirm that statement,” he said. “And we’re looking forward to these independent investigations to get at the truth.” He said he was “anxious to get those underway.”

Tyson, a California professor, says Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex on him after they met at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Watson, who lives in Maryland, says Fairfax sexually assaulted her when they were undergraduate students at Duke University. Neither reported the alleged assaults to law enforcement.

Tyson and Watson, who have separate legal representation, have both said through their lawyers that they would be willing to publicly testify during impeachment proceedings.

Asked why these women would come forward if they are lying, Fairfax said, “I would just say right now, the paramount issue is having the truth come out.”

In a follow-up text Monday morning, a Fairfax staff member stressed that the lieutenant governor would like to see “due process on both sides for everyone involved” and that “there needs to be space for both sides to tell their side of the story.”

In the interview, Fairfax reiterated his call for the FBI or some other independent law-enforcement entity to investigate. Tyson’s attorney has said the FBI would have no jurisdiction in either case, because the alleged crimes are not federal in nature.

Asked whether he or his team had taken any steps to initiate an investigation, Fairfax said that he has met with his attorneys but that he cannot talk about those discussions.

The now-paused attempt to impeach Fairfax would have been unprecedented; Virginia political observers can recall no attempt to impeach an elected official in the state in modern times.

Some high-profile Virginia Democrats, including Gov. Ralph Northam, Sen. Mark R. Warner and Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, say Fairfax should step down if the allegations are proven true, stopping short of an outright call for resignation.

Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) are embroiled in separate controversies over the use of blackface in the 1980s, but neither is threatened with impeachment. That has created another uncomfortable dynamic for Democrats as they ponder whether to force out Fairfax, a rising African American star in the party, while white men accused of racism stay in office.

As the part-time lieutenant governor, Fairfax presides over the closely divided state Senate during the legislative session and can break ties on certain votes.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

You couldn't make this up: "Virginia first lady under fire for handing cotton to African American students on mansion tour"

Spoiler

A Virginia state employee has complained that her eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor’s residence when first lady Pam Northam handed raw cotton to her and another African American child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop.

“The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” Leah Dozier Walker, who oversees the Office of Equity and Community Engagement at the state Education Department, wrote Feb. 25 to lawmakers and the office of Gov. Ralph Northam (D).

“But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness,” she wrote.

Northam’s office and one other parent of a child who was present said the first lady did not single out the African American students and simply handed out the cotton to a group. But the incident highlights the scrutiny and doubt that envelope the governor as he tries to push past racist incidents from his past and ignore continued calls for his resignation. His first attempt at a “reconciliation tour” failed last week when the student government at Virginia Union University asked him not to attend a civil rights commemoration there.

And though Northam has vowed to dedicate the remaining three years of his term to racial equity, members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus say he is not doing enough to help disadvantaged minorities in the state budget.

[Northam has a chance to back his words with actions, and his party may hang in the balance]

Northam has been under fire since Feb. 1, when a photo came to light from his 1984 medical school yearbook page that depicted one person in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes. Northam initially took responsibility for the picture; a day later he said it wasn’t him in the photo, but admitted that he darkened his face to imitate Michael Jackson in a dance contest later that same year.

All of the state’s top Democrats — including the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus — have called on Northam to step down. Pressure to leave has eased a bit because Virginia’s other two top leaders became embroiled in controversies of their own shortly after Northam’s scandal broke. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has denied allegations of sexual assault from two women, and Attorney General Mark R. Herring admitted to wearing blackface for a college party in 1980.

The complaint about the tour is the first time the scandal’s stain has spread to Pam Northam, who insiders say has been a strong advocate behind the scenes for her husband to stay in office and work to clear his name.

“I regret that I have upset anyone,” Pam Northam said Wednesday in a statement emailed by the governor’s spokeswoman, Ofirah Yheskel.

The tour took place Feb. 21, when the Northams hosted a traditional gathering of about 100 young people who had served as pages during the state Senate session, which was wrapping up that weekend.

Trained docents often lead tours of the Executive Mansion, which was built with slave labor in 1813 and is the oldest active governor’s residence in the country. In this case, Pam Northam — a former middle school teacher — took groups of pages to an adjacent cottage that had long ago served as a kitchen.

Before a huge fireplace with iron cooking implements, Pam Northam held up samples of cotton and tobacco to a group of about 20 children and described the enslaved workers who picked it.

“Mrs. Northam then asked these three pages (the only African American pages in the program) if they could imagine what it must have been like to pick cotton all day,” Walker wrote. “I can not for the life of me understand why the first lady would single out the African American pages for this — or — why she would ask them such an insensitive question.”

The governor’s office, which did not make Pam Northam available for an interview, said she simply handed the cotton to whoever was nearby and wanted everyone to note the sharpness of the stems and leaves on the raw cotton, to imagine how uncomfortable it would’ve been to handle all day.

Walker could not immediately be reached for comment. In a letter written by Walker’s daughter to Pam Northam, which was included as an attachment to the email to lawmakers, the young girl said she did not take the cotton, but her friend did. “It made her very uncomfortable,” the girl wrote.

“I will give you the benefit of the doubt, because you gave it to some other pages,” the girl wrote to Pam Northam. “But you followed this up by asking: ‘Can you imagine being an enslaved person, and having to pick this all day?’, which didn’t help the damage you had done.”

Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar said “we received no complaints” after the mansion visit. She said the only thing the pages were buzzing about afterward was the fact that one of the pages was dehydrated and fainted during the tour of the kitchen.

Sen. William M. Stanley Jr. (R-Franklin), whose daughter served as a page this session, was among the group that the first lady took to the kitchen. Stanley declined to make his daughter available for an interview, but said she told him that Pam Northam handed the cotton around to all of the students.

“The first lady’s intent was to show the horrors of slavery and to make sure everyone felt the pain they felt in some small measure,” he said. Two days later, Stanley’s wife got the same tour from Pam Northam and found it “poignant,” he said.

Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), a member of the Black Caucus, praised the student “for her courage in speaking out when a lot of times African Americans have not always had the opportunity to confront offenses in this way.”

She said Pam Northam used poor judgment in her presentation to the children.

“The cotton itself is a symbol of murder, rape, displacement and the radiating effects of the transatlantic slave trade that black Virginians are still experiencing today,” Price said.
“I don’t know that you have to have actual cotton handed to the children to understand slavery was bad.”

Former governor Terry McAuliffe (D) and his wife, Dorothy, had begun restoring the kitchen building as a way to highlight the service of generations of enslaved workers whose names were mostly lost to history. The McAuliffes had passages from letters written by some of those enslaved workers engraved on tablets and mounted on the garden wall outside.

Northam’s office said the first lady has met with experts at Monticello to learn about how to present the history of enslaved workers. At a luncheon for state legislators’ spouses a week ago, Pam Northam invited a speaker from Monticello to deliver a program titled “How Oral History Gave Voice to Monticello’s Enslaved Community.”

In her statement, Pam Northam said she will continue working to “thoughtfully and honestly” tell the story of the mansion’s enslaved workers. “I am still committed to chronicling the important history of the Historic Kitchen, and will continue to engage historians and experts on the best way to do so in the future,” she said.

 

[fraurosena]

I'm digging up this old thread because I had no idea where to post one of the most eloquent speeches I have ever heard from a member of the public, during a Virginia school board meeting. Listen and be amazed.

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by fraurosena
clarity

[Xan]

50 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I'm digging up this old thread because I had no idea where to post one of the most eloquent speeches I have ever heard from a member of the public, during a Virginia school board meeting. Listen and be amazed.

That was excellent.  Could you repost it on a busier thread so that everyone can see it?