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Virginia has a pretty bad situation in front of them. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is still receiving calls to resign due to to past alleged use of blackface, with the governor allegedly in a picture with one person in blackface and another wearing a KKK outfit. The Virginia Attorney General, next in line for governor if the lieutenant governor is unable to take charge, has his own blackface controversy in front of him due to him admitting his own use of it several decades ago.
The controversy doesn’t end there.Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax was expected to take charge if Ralph Northam resigned over the yearbook photo, but his own issues came up when two women accused him of sexual assault. After the situation with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year, it seems like a replay of those events, with women coming out to derail them from potentially taking an important position in government. Fairfax denies the accusations of sexual assault but claims that he had an consensual encounter with one of the women.
The whole fiasco has another element that has political consequences beyond the alleged actions they are accused of. All three men mentioned above are Democrats. In the unlikely scenario that all three of them resign, then the next in line for governor is the Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox. The fact that all three of their resignations could potentially result in the governor’s office switching from Democratic to Republican without an election may be enough to give some people pause for demanding all three of them resign due to that.
Even if all three of them do decide to resign, that doesn’t mean they all have to resign at the same time. Fairfax could potentially resign first, allowing Northam to appoint a Democrat as Fairfax’s replacement and then he could resign later so the office stays blue. But there is the issue of opposition for him being able to pick the next lieutenant governor when he is dealing with his own controversy. At the same time, Fairfax was threatened with impeachment if he did not resign over the accusations. Both of his alleged victims offered to testify in impeachment proceedings against him.
Thoughts? Do you think any of them should resign, all of them should resign, or should all of them stay where they are at? If you think all three should resign, then should they just let Cox take the top seat or should they put a contingency in place so a Democrat can take the seat, even if there is risk of pushback?
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