Four Fairfax staffers resign as political chaos reigns in Va.

RICHMOND, Va. — Black lawmakers threatened to scuttle the General Assembly’s budget deal Monday, and staffers resigned from the lieutenant governor’s office as Virginia’s political scandals began affecting the operation of government.

The executive branch seemed frozen in a state of suspended calamity, with its three leaders holding onto office despite widespread calls for resignation and no clear mechanism for moving them out.

An effort to consider impeaching Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax over sexual assault allegations went nowhere as lawmakers pointed out that he denies the charges and that there is no obvious way to commission an investigation.

Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, both Democrats, are under fire for racist incidents from their past, but they have not been accused of crimes that would rise to the level of impeachment. Because Virginia is the only state to prohibit a governor from serving consecutive terms, Northam won’t have to answer to voters again. It’s up to each man to decide his own political fate, and none is budging.

Four staffers working for Fairfax quit on Friday, leaving him with a skeleton crew.

Fairfax has been accused by two women of sexual assaults in 2000 and 2004, and he strongly denies both allegations. He has called for an investigation, but he otherwise continued with his usual duties Monday of presiding over the Senate.

“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,” Fairfax said Sunday night in a telephone interview with the Washington Post. “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.”

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