Va. governor says he won’t quit; new allegation hits deputy
RICHMOND, Va. — Defying practically the entire Democratic Party, Gov. Ralph Northam told his top staff Friday that he won’t resign over the racist-photo furor, while a second sexualassault accusation was leveled against his lieutenant governor, the man who would succeed him if he stepped down.
The new allegation immediately brought demands from top Democrats for Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to resign, too.
The twin developments came at the end of a week that saw all three of Virginia’s top elected officials — all Democrats — embroiled in potentially career-ending scandals.
Mr. Northam, who is a year into his four-year term, announced his intention to stay during an afternoon Cabinet meeting, according to a senior official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Later in the day, the governor issued a statement to state employees, saying, “You have placed your trust in me to lead Virginia forward — and I plan to do that.”
The woman who came forward to accuse Mr. Fairfax on Friday said he attacked her when they were students at Duke University. The Associated Press is not reporting the details because the allegation has not been corroborated.
Mr. Fairfax emphatically denied the new allegation, as he did the first one. “It is obvious that a vicious and coordinated smear campaign is being orchestrated against me,” he said.
Duke campus police have no criminal reports naming Mr. Fairfax, university spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said. Durham, N.C., police spokesman Wil Glenn also said he couldn’t find a report in the department’s system on the 2000 allegation.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, immediately called on Mr. Fairfax to resign, citing “multiple detailed allegations” that are “deeply troubling.” Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe tweeted that the lieutenant governor “can no longer effectively serve.”
The tumult began late last week, with the discovery of a photo on Mr. Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page that showed someone in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. Mr. Northam at first admitted he was in the picture, then denied it a day later, but acknowledged he once put shoe polish on his face to look like Michael Jackson for a dance contest in 1984.
Nearly the entire Virginia Democratic establishment, as well as nearly every Democratic presidential hopeful, called on him to resign.
Virginia soon slid deeper into crisis on Wednesday, when Attorney General Mark Herring acknowledged wearing blackface at a college party in 1980, and Mr. Fairfax was publicly accused by a California college professor of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at a Boston hotel in 2004.