McClellan pushes back at Chase over VLBC comments, Gilbert calls for a special session, and Politifact looks at McAuliffe's restoration of rights
The latest in Virginia politics
McClellan responds to more comments from Chase over her role in Virginia Legislative Black Caucus
State Senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McClellan responded to comments from her colleague in the Senate and Republican gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase on Monday. In a video first posted on Blue Virginia, Chase refers to McClellan’s role as vice-chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) as a form of racism.
“But I said Jennifer McClellan, who is a Democrat senator who is also running for governor when she announced she was running for governor, she is the vice-chairman…woman for the Legislative Black Caucus,” Chase says in the video. “Do you know what I said after she announced? What every single Democrat would have said about me if I had been the vice-chairman of the White Republican Caucus. I said she will not represent everyone. And I will not be a member of a caucus or a committee that discriminates against people based on the color of their skin. And yet she does. And that’s wrong and I called her out and they wanted me to apologize. I said, no, I will not apologize. She should stop being a racist.”
The stated mission of the VLBC is a commitment to improving the economic, educational, political, and social conditions of African Americans, as well as historically underrepresented groups in Virginia.
“It’s disappointing that Sen. Chase has focused her entire campaign around attacking me and the work of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus,” McClellan said in a statement Monday. “It’s time for every Republican candidate running for governor to call out Sen. Chase’s comments for what they are: racist attacks that Virginians will not tolerate.”
This is not the first time that Chase has attacked McClellan over her membership in the VLBC. “I support equal rights, not special rights. You know, Sen. McClellan, she is the vice-chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. … And I said she will not be a governor that supports everyone,” Chase said last month.
Del. Kirk Cox, another Republican gubernatorial hopeful responded to the statements from Chase in March. “I disagree with those comments. They’re wrong,” Cox said in a statement to Virginia Scope last month. “I’ve worked with the Legislative Black Caucus and understand what they believe in and why they want a voice. Virginia Republicans need to nominate a candidate that will add members to our ranks, not encourage division. We can elect a conservative as our next governor, but we will need to reach every Virginian in order to do so.”
McClellan says that she won’t let comments like these stop her from continuing her work moving forward.
“My campaign for governor is about uplifting all Virginians from every corner of our Commonwealth. That’s exactly what I’ve done in the legislature for 15 years, and as the vice-chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus,” McClellan said Monday. “We’ve led on generational change to expand access to health care for hundreds of thousands of Virginians, reform the justice system, expand access to voting, and create jobs in every community. The bigotry of some elected officials will never hold me back from serving the people of Virginia.”
House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert wants a special session to investigate the Parole Board
House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert is calling for a special session to investigate Virginia’s Parole Board and the scandal surrounding it.
“If Governor Northam takes seriously his responsibility to see that the laws are faithfully executed, he will call the General Assembly back for a Special Session and ask for a legislative review of this entire fiasco,” Leader Gilbert said Monday.
This comes on the heels of an hour-long recording that was recently published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Virginia Mercury from a meeting that took place last August between Governor Northam’s top staff and the Inspector General, Micheal Westfall. Westfall is tasked with investigating the executive branch, including the Parole Board, which is at the center of controversy after they allegedly broke protocol several times when releasing incarcerated individuals for parole.
The most notorious moment in the scandal revolves around the release of Vincent Martin, the man that killed a Richmond police officer in 1979. Martin was released on parole in 2020, but the controversy surrounding the Parole Board’s handling of his case has been an ongoing controversy.
According to documents provided to WTVR, an Office of the Inspector General (OSIG) investigation of the Parole Board in July included “allegations that the former chair, Adrianne Bennett, asked at least two employees to falsify a report and violate their own ethics.”
WTVR continued to report, “[Westfall] said that in March 2020, Bennett asked a hearing examiner to falsify a report, by making it appear as their own, within Martin’s case file.”
In the recorded-August meeting, the governor’s staff can be heard telling Westfall that he is being used as a political tool by the Republicans — Northam’s Chief of Staff Clark Mercer also asked Westfall if he was going to investigate Republicans for releasing the details of the investigation into the Vincent Martin case last year.
The allegations and the potential investigation into the release of documents around the Martin case have remained a key talking point for Republicans.
Gilbert and House Republicans have no faith in a $250,000 budget amendment that the General Assembly recently approved to fund a narrowly scoped investigation around the release of Martin. “The recording of the meeting between the Office of State Inspector General and Governor Northam’s team explains why the Governor’s budget amendment only called for an investigation of OSIG, and not the Parole Board,” Gilbert said in a statement Monday.
Republican leaders say that the investigation is only looking into how OSIG investigated the Parole Board and not an investigation of the actual board members and their actions. “That’s why the ‘investigation’ authorized by the Governor’s budget amendment doesn’t touch the Parole Board. It’s not an investigation, it’s retribution against the Inspector General for having the temerity to do his job,” Gilbert said Monday.
The language in the amendment supports that statement from Gilbert — with it written on Virginia’s Legislative Information System as money “to fund a third-party investigation of the Office of the State Inspector General’s policies, processes, and procedures employed during its handling of the Vincent Martin matter.”
Kunal Atit, a spokesperson for Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn says the authorized investigation will be fair and independent keeping it clear of politicians. “The investigatory framework passed by the House and Senate provides for a fair, thorough, and independent investigation free from partisan influence and with a definitive timeline in which Virginians will receive answers,” he said Monday. “While House Republicans want to get politicians involved and turn this into a political circus it is our belief that a serious investigation should be handled by professional investigators.”
Governor Northam’s office has not responded to requests for comment. He has called two special sessions in the past year, once in the fall of 2020 to pass a slate of criminal justice reforms and to readjust the budget due to COVID-19, and once this year to extend the regular session 15 additional days.
Statewide Candidate Funding Sources - VPAP
Sen. Amanda Chase (R) and Del. Lee Carter (D) lead their party’s gubernatorial nominees in the percentage of the total money raised coming from small-dollar donations.
Del. Kirk Cox (R) and Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D) lead their party’s gubernatorial nominees in the percentage of the total money raised from business donors.
In total, Terry McAuliffe leads Democratic gubernatorial campaigns in actual money raised from the Commonwealth with nearly $3.8 million raised from Virginians. Glenn Youngkin leads the Republicans in actual money raised from the Commonwealth with $1.2 raised from Virginians.
McAuliffe’s $4.4 million from out-of-state donors (43% of his total haul) and Jennifer Carroll Foy’s (D) $711,342 (19% of her total haul) topped the list of funds raised from out-of-state donors.
McAuliffe near the top in restoring ex-felon voting rights - Politifact
by Warren Fisk
Former and possibly future Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he holds the national record for restoring voting rights to people who have finished felony prison sentences.
"I restored felons’ rights - 173,000 - more than any governor in the history of America," he said during an April 6 debate between the five candidates in the June 8 Democratic primary election for governor.
When a candidate claims a record, our ears perk up. We fact checked McAuliffe’s statement.
Most of the Republican gubernatorial candidates met for a forum hosted by the Liberty University College Republicans.
Kirk Cox Releases a New Ad
Terry McAuliffe releases a new ad
The Virginia Chapter of the National Organization for Women endorses Delegate Hala Ayala for lieutenant governor
“Our Political Action Committee has voted unanimously to endorse Hala's candidacy for Lt. Governor,’’ said VA NOW President Connie Cordovilla. “It is with great pride and excitement that VA NOW pledges our support for Hala.
“She has been a Virginia chapter and state NOW leader - but much more, she has been a beacon for equality in the state House of Delegates. Her commitment to Virginia's girls and women is paramount to her work and equality for all is in her heart. She is the embodiment of "nevertheless, she persisted." Hala knows the struggles that women face in the workplace and at home, especially this year when the workplace is at home in many cases.
“She steadfastly supports programs to combat domestic partner violence, presses for Stem Education for girls and women and works for the health and wellbeing of all Virginians. She was a bulwark for the ERA Passage, fought to get Paid Family Leave enacted in VA, worked to get teachers’ pay raises and championed affordable college tuition.
“Hala is special to NOW. She shows up and stands up for the decency and respect that girls and women deserve. Her record for "real" family values and equality for ALL will help us motivate voters to support her in the June primary and the November election. VA NOW finds it truly an honor to support Hala for Lt. Governor of Virginia.”
The labor unions AFSCME, SMART, and UFCW Local 400 announced their endorsements of Attorney General Mark Herring’s re-election campaign
“The work that Attorney General Herring has done advocating for fair compensation and expanding protections for Virginia’s workers has been nothing short of impeccable,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is confident that Mark Herring will continue to carry out a pro-worker agenda that will always support workers in the commonwealth, including the expansion of collective bargaining rights, and we happily support him for re-election.”
“The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers is proud to support Attorney General Mark Herring for a third term because he’s never lost sight of our over 200,000 members,” said Smart President Joseph Sellers Jr. “Over the past eight years, Mark has enhanced worker protections, and his new Worker Protection Unit is poised to advocate for workers seeking safe and fair working conditions and proper compensation. We’re confident that Mark’s leadership will continue to be invaluable to us as Attorney General.”
“The Attorney General has been a dear friend to the working families that Local 400 represents during his time in office,” said UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici. “He’s established critical protections for labor unions, and allowed for workers supported by our union to live and work with dignity. It’s for these reasons United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400 is proud to support Attorney General Herring for re-election.”
"Attorney General Herring really stands out as a fierce fighter for hard-working immigrant families who are under constant attack, because he understands how critical they are to our economy and communities," said SEIU 32BJ Vice President Jaime Contreras. "His efforts to ensure that contracted workers are paid livable wages will greatly improve the lives of men and women hit hardest by COVID and wage inequality."
Republicans fret over divisive candidates - The Hill
by Tal Axelrod
Republicans are sounding the alarm that divisive candidates running across the country could cost them key Senate and gubernatorial races next year.
The party is concerned that disruptive contenders could hurt their chances of keeping Senate seats in Missouri, Alabama and Wisconsin and flipping the governor’s mansion in Virginia. Republicans are also nervously watching primaries for open Senate seats in North Carolina and Ohio and Democratic-held seats in Arizona and Georgia.
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