"Probably the most infamous session since 1861," is how Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, summed it up.



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RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers wrapped up the strangest General Assembly session in anyone's memory Sunday, plowing through blackface scandals and sexual-assault allegations to reach a bipartisan deal on taxes and position all 140 legislators for fall elections that could determine partisan control for years to come.

The chaos overshadowed actual legislative accomplishments, including bipartisan agreement on incentives for the massive Amazon headquarters project in Arlington County, a plan to clean up coal ash ponds across the state, a law raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 from 18 and pay raises for teachers and other public employees.

The drama continued through the final moments of the session - extended by one day in an act of political payback - as Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax vigorously defended himself against sexual assault allegations from the Senate dais. 

"If we go backwards and we rush to judgment, and we allow for political lynchings without any due process, any facts, any evidence being heard, then I think we do a disservice to this very body in which we all serve," Fairfax said in response to Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment, R-James City, who had briefly praised Fairfax's ability to keep presiding over the body amid the frenzy. 

Senators reacted to Fairfax's extended remarks with silence. 


Efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and extend discrimination protections to gays and lesbians, which initially seemed to have broad support, foundered in a climate of degenerating politics and historical irony.

Revelations that the Democratic governor and attorney general both engaged in blackface incidents as young men sparked wrenching discussions about race as Virginia marks the 400th anniversary of the first Africans arriving in the British colony in 1619, to be made slaves.

 Gov. Ralph Northam defied calls to resign. Attorney General Mark Herring hunkered down outside of public view for nearly a month. And the session ended with partisan discord over how to handle a pair of sexual assault allegations against Fairfax, only the second African-American elected statewide in Virginia's history.

The scandals fed a national sense that the state's leadership was in shambles just as Virginia observed another big anniversary: 400 years of representative democracy stretching back to Jamestown.

"It had more drama than we could possibly have imagined or would want to deal with," Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, said. Nevertheless, she said, "We got a lot done. The lawmakers kept their noses to the grindstone, and the state ran." 

In a snub, the House and Senate did not did not send a delegation of lawmakers to the governor's ceremonial office in the Capitol to report that they had adjourned, as is customary. Northam had let them know earlier Sunday that "he would be ready to receive them," said the governor's spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel. Northam got a half-hour's notice that they would not be coming.

Looking to November

Now that the 46-day General Assembly session is over, attention will shift toward November elections. 

Just 15 minutes after gaveling out, House Republicans launched a YouTube ad that spliced national coverage of the Democratic scandals with local TV reports on Republican plans for school safety, tax cuts and autism.

"Virginia's choice is clear: chaos and embarrassment," a female narrator says, "or leadership and results."

House Democrats were not far behind with a fundraising pitch pegged to bills blocked by the GOP, including efforts to raise the minimum wage, pass the ERA, tighten gun laws and ban discrimination against the LGBT community.

Republicans hold two-seat majorities in the House of Delegates and the state Senate, and Democrats had been hoping that momentum was on their side to take back control for the first time in a generation. Part of the prize: the ability to control statewide redistricting in 2021.

That dynamic heightened political tensions during the session. Democrats made a show of pushing legislation to limit access to guns, raise the minimum wage and restrict the use of fossil fuels - knowing that Republican leadership would deny them all, but planning to campaign on it this fall.

Republicans were happy to oblige, building toward a message that a Democratic majority would lead to laws that are out of step with middle-of-the-road Virginians and unfriendly to business.

As part of that strategy, Republicans highlighted a bill sponsored by Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, aimed at loosening restrictions on late-term abortions for cases in which the mother's life or health is at risk. A video of Tran saying her bill would allow abortion up to the moment a woman goes into labor went viral, and Northam's effort to defend the bill on the radio had national commentators saying he favored infanticide.

Amid the national outcry over the governor's abortion comments, a right-wing political website posted a racist photo from Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page showing figures in blackface and Ku Klux Klan garb.

Distractions galore

Northam first took responsibility for the photo, then disavowed it - but he admitted wearing blackface later that same year while dressed as Michael Jackson for a dance contest.

Virtually all state and national Democrats called on him to resign. Northam refused, saying he would seek racial reconciliation, and the pressure eased when the rest of the executive branch suffered cascading scandals.

First one woman came forward to say Fairfax sexually assaulted her in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston; then, Herring, who had called for Northam's resignation, admitted to wearing blackface as a college student in 1980. Then, a second woman accused Fairfax of sexually assaulting her in 2000 while they were students at Duke University. Fairfax has denied both charges and called for law enforcement to investigate.

Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox, Colonial Heights, who would be next in line for the governorship if all three top executives resigned at once, has backed a plan to hold a public committee hearing to receive testimony from Fairfax and both women. One accuser accepted the invitation; the other said she is eager to testify but signaled discomfort with any process that isn't bipartisan.

House Democrats called the plan overtly political and inappropriate until law enforcement has had a chance to investigate. Those partisan accusations on Friday - the eve of the legislature's scheduled adjournment Saturday - put final budget negotiations under a cloud.

Most lawmakers were ready to get out of Richmond on Saturday, when final tweaks to the budget were unveiled at 11 a.m. But House Democrats insisted on observing a rule that the spending plan be public for 48 hours before a vote. It was payback for House Republicans, who days earlier had refused to waive other House rules to allow a floor vote on the ERA.

After a long standoff Saturday, legislators agreed to cut the public notice to 24 hours. And so they returned Sunday at 11 a.m. 

Both chambers were in and out in an hour. They approved changes to the state's existing two-year, $117-billion budget, including extra money for teachers as well as at-risk public school students and eviction prevention - two areas pushed by Northam as part of his effort to spend the rest of his term focused on solving racial inequities.

Some of the other topics this year's General Assembly addressed included:

- Redistricting: The legislature passed a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission. The measure is the first step. It would have to pass the legislature again next year and then win approval from voters in a referendum. 

- Minimum wage: Democrats' bills to raise the state's $7.25-an-hour minimum wage to $15 failed. So did measures intended to close a loophole in state law allowing employers to play certain workers less.

- Economic development: The legislature approved state tax incentives of up to $750 million to Amazon, on condition that the company create tens of thousands of jobs with average pay of at least $150,000 a year. (Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

- Transportation: An ambitious, bipartisan plan to make $2.2 billion in fixes to Interstate 81, rolled out on the eve of the session by Northam and prominent Republicans, fell apart. Advocates, who originally called for tolls to bankroll the project, settled for legislation calling for a study of the highway. 

- Social issues: Legislation related to guns, abortion and gay rights were mostly at a standstill in the closely divided legislature. One exception: passage of bill making it easier for gay couples to have children through surrogacy arrangements. And it elevated openly gay Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland, whose original election to the Richmond District Court in 2012 created enormous controversy, to Circuit Court without debate.




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