Trio of crises leave Virginia Dems reeling

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s Democrats struggled to find their way out of three interlocking political crises Thursday that could bring down the party’s top elected officials and put a Republican in the governor’s chair.

With Gov. Ralph Northam’s career in peril over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook, the state attorney general acknowledged Wednesday that he put on blackface when he was in college, and a woman publicly accused the lieutenant governor of sexually assaulting her 15 years ago.

While nearly the entire Democratic establishment rose up against Northam over the past week to demand he resign, party members did not call for immediate resignations over the two latest developments, which threaten to cause a political chain reaction.

In a statement Thursday night, Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus reiterated its call for Northam to resign, but stopped short of calling for Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax or Attorney General Mark Herring to step down. Fairfax would become Virginia’s second black governor if Northam stepped down.

The black lawmakers said the sexual assault allegation against Fairfax must be “thoroughly investigated.” They also said that while they appreciated Herring’s “candor” in admitting to wearing blackface, they “await further action on his part to reassure the citizens of the Commonwealth of his fitness for leadership.”

The state’s two U.S. senators and seven Democratic congressmen also took a similar approach. They released a joint statement

calling for an investigation into Fairfax and urging Herring to continue to be “engaged in in-depth discussions with leaders and others in Virginia if he is to regain (the public’s) trust.”

Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University, had initially predicted Northam would be unable to hang on to office for more than a week. Now, with all three top Democrats in trouble, the equation has changed, he said.

He said it is possible all three could survive just out of political necessity because conservative Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox would be next in line for governor if they all resigned.

The Democrats’ “moral clarity” last week has given way to the realization they could “lose power completely at the executive level,” Kidd said. He likened the situation to three sinking boats “that suddenly lash themselves together and find they can float.”

Up to now, the Democrats nationally have taken an aggressive stand against misconduct in their ranks, in part so that they can criticize Trump’s behavior without being accused of hypocrisy.

Democrats in Virginia have expressed fear the crises could jeopardize their chances of taking control of the GOP-dominated legislature this year after big gains in 2017.

Gov. Northam