The dumpster fire that has engulfed Richmond still burns, and it has the Virginia Democratic Party in a bind. Right now, all three top state officeholders are embroiled in scandal. All of them are Democrats. Gov. Ralph Northam and state Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to doing blackface. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has been slapped with two sexual assault allegations. Calls for resignation ring the loudest for Fairfax and Northam, though the latter is adamant of not leaving. Fairfax was facing an impeachment threat from a democratic House delegate, Patrick Hope, who threatened to file articles yesterday should Fairfax not step down. He walked back the remarks Monday morning.
If all three Democrats resign, Republicans would take control of the governorship. That cannot happen. Yet, the reason why Democrats were able to clinch 40 seats in the 2017 elections was due to black voters and women. The party cannot afford to anger both. Heck, angering just one could have consequences for this year’s legislative elections. A possible outcome: the two white dudes who wore blackface stay, but the black LG gets the boot. As of now, Fairfax isn’t budging either, though his staff is starting to jump ship (via Richmond Times-Dispatch):
Two of the three government staffers to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and two employees of his political action committee resigned following news Friday of a second sexual assault allegation against him.
The PAC employees who left are Dave Mills, who was the executive director of We Rise Together, and Courtney McCargo, a fundraiser for the PAC.
[…]
On the government side, Adele McClure, the policy director, resigned, as did Julia Billingsley, the scheduling director.
Can confirm the @patrickmwilson scoop. 4 staffers for @LGJustinFairfax have left their positions.
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) February 11, 2019
2 staffers from his PAC
2 from his LG office.
Leaves him with only 2 people working for him.
Keep in mind, @RalphNortham has a much bigger staff under his direct charge and not one person has left his administration or political wing since the scandal broke.
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) February 11, 2019
Fairfax has a total of six staffers and has now lost four.
There have been no defections from the Northam’s crew, but the whole situation remains too good to be true. Ralph Northam whipped out the race card to smear Ed Gillespie in 2017. This development has whittled away any credibility he had. This is revenge. And it’s sweet, but I don’t want Northam to leave. I want his radioactivity to continue to saturate Richmond, drive down turnout, and depress the hell out of the Democratic Party. In less than a week, these three dudes have destroyed the Virginia Democratic Party. And it was all their doing, with their own rules. You can’t get any better than that. Northam can moonwalk all he wants; he’s a blackface-wearing, hypocritical moron who deserves every punch that is being hurled at him. He’s politically brain dead, but no one has told him yet.
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