Scandal leaves Democrats speechless

WITH Virginia’s top three elected officials engulfed in scandal, fellow Democrats were rendered practically speechless, uncertain of how to thread their way through racial and sexual allegations and their implications.

Governor Ralph Northam’s career was hanging by a thread over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook when California woman Vanessa Tyson publicly accused Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, and then the Attorney General Mark Herring admitted that he, too, wore blackface once as a teenager. Herring – in line to become governor if Northam and Fairfax resign – acknowledged that he wore brown make-up and a wig in 1980 when he was a 19-year-old student at the University of Virginia.

At the Capitol, lawmakers were dumbstruck over the developments, with Democratic Senator Barbara Favola saying, “I have to take a breath and think about this. This is moving way too quickly.” |