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Northam Hopes To Bring Legal Recreational Marijuana To Virginia In 2021

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After signing a bill into law that decriminalized marijuana earlier this year, Governor Ralph Northam formally voiced his support for fully legalizing marijuana in Virginia next year. This is welcome news both for civil rights advocates and cannabis enthusiasts in the Commonwealth.

Recreational marijuana use may be legal in Virginia by 2021 — letting the Commonwealth join states such as Colorado and California, as well as neighboring Washington DC, that allow their residents to freely use cannabis. 

Governor Ralph Northam released a report by the Virginia Marijuana Legalization Work Group on Monday, November 30, which outlines five key principles the governor wants to see in any proposed marijuana legislation. These principles are: social and racial equity, public health efforts to curb substance abuse in schools, age limits and ID checks for marijuana purchasers, upholding the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act — which prohibits cigarette smoking indoors — and ongoing data collection on health, safety, and equity.

House majority leader Charniele Herring sponsored the bill that decriminalized marijuana, which was passed during the 2020 session. Herring is also a sponsor of the studies currently being done on legalization.

“This is a thorough study, so there’s no need to delay. The draft study was 175 pages,” Herring said. 

Herring says that legalization of marijuana will be beneficial for the state.

“It’s a revenue producer, and there are some benefits to its medicinal use,” Herring said. 

Del. Charniele Herring. Photo via Facebook.

Virginia already allows medical marijuana use, but the proposed legislation would legalize it entirely. 

Legalization of marijuana could also be beneficial for communities of color, specifically Black communities, who face harsher penalties for using the drug than white communities. Black Virginians are arrested and convicted for marijuana use at more than three times the rate of white Virginians, according to a report by JLARC. 

“There’s been a disproportionate impact on communities of color when it comes to enforcing marijuana laws,” Herring said. “People of color don’t use it more than white people do, but our prosecutions are disproportionate, and we will certainly combat the issue.”

Herring says that there is little that can be done for those who are currently serving jail sentences for possession of marijuana, but that their sentences can be expunged, or the records sealed, when they get out. Marijuana sentences are generally under one year and are served in jails rather than prisons. Northam’s press release states that sealing or expunging records of past marijuana convictions is one of the initiatives that the legislation should include.

Governor Ralph Northam. RVA Mag file photo.

On November 16, Northam formally voiced his support for the legalization, saying he intended to introduce and support legislation to legalize marijuana for adult use in Virginia. 

“Our Commonwealth has the opportunity to be the first state in the South to take this step, and we will lead with a focus on equity, public health, and public safety,” Northam said in the press release. 

Since 2012, 15 states and the District of Columbia have legalized all marijuana use, while 36 states — including Virginia — have legalized medical use. 

Top Photo by Next Green Wave on Unsplash

Ayala, Guzmán Champion Equality, Representation in Lieutenant Governor Bids

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Recently, two different Latina members of the General Assembly, Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzmán, have announced their candidacies for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia; if either is elected, they would be the first Latina woman to hold the office.

Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzmán, two delegates who represent Prince William County, have formally announced a run for lieutenant governor. If either is successful, Ayala or Guzmán would become the first Latina to serve in the role. 

The delegates were among the first Latina representatives elected to the state legislature during the wave of Democratic victories in 2017. Ayala and Guzmán ran for office to provide diversity in state government in order to more accurately represent the population in Prince William County, where a quarter of residents are Latino; almost 25 percent are Black and nearly 10 percent are Asian, according to the U.S. Census. 

‘A bridge builder’ 

Ayala was born in Alexandria to a Salvadoran father and Irish-Lebanese mother. Before becoming a state delegate, she volunteered for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and founded the Prince William chapter of the National Organization for Women. She also was vice president of the organization at the state level. Ayala defeated eight-year incumbent Republican Rich Anderson to represent District 51 in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Ayala said she first considered running for lieutenant governor in 2019 to be a bridge builder. She said she has seen the societal divide in America grow this year because of COVID-19, and knew she could do more. Before becoming involved in politics, Ayala worked in national security, where she said settling disagreements and being a bridge builder is part of the job.

A self-described politician and activist, Ayala said she has always championed for equality.

“My work with Prince William NOW was about bringing people together, which I’ve always tried to do,” Ayala said. “You may not like what I say, but at least you know you are seen, you are heard and you are welcomed.”

Ayala is also an advocate for improving Medicaid, which she credits with saving her son, who has autism.

“We need a healthcare system that is inclusive of our economy and works for every family, especially now, as Virginia deals with the pandemic,” she said.

In the upcoming General Assembly session, Ayala said she plans to introduce legislation providing hazard pay for essential workers, defining broadband as critical infrastructure, and improving schools.

Del. Ayala during her first session after clinching a victory in 2017. Photo via VCU-CNS.

‘A matter of representation’

Guzmán immigrated to the United States from Peru and settled in Northern Virginia. She worked three jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment before earning a master’s degree in public administration and social work and becoming a social worker.

Guzmán defeated eight-term Republican incumbent Del. Scott Lingamfelter in 2017 for the 31st District seat. She ran on a platform of improving public education, raising the minimum wage, and expanding Medicaid.

Guzmán said her decision to run for state legislature was a matter of representation, and that Lingamfelter was not a good representation of the diverse constituents in Eastern Prince William. Guzman said that because of her background she was able to champion historic legislation this year.

 “It was because of the communities that I represent,” Guzmán said. “It was about the struggles that I had as a first generation immigrant.”

Guzmán was tapped to co-chair Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in Virginia with fellow Prince William Del. Lee Carter. 

Guzmán said she’s passionate about investing more into the state’s public education, including more counselors in schools and more resources for special education and remote learning. Guzmán said she was surprised to discover education issues and legislation that would improve “quality of life” were seen as partisan in the chamber.

“It didn’t matter how well I could make my case or how prepared I would be with data and facts, it was all about party,” Guzmán said. “My intention was to serve all Virginians, not only those who voted for me.”

As a member of the Prince William-Manassas Regional Jail Board, Guzmán had a hand in getting Prince William County to end its agreement to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pursue and detain immigrants who entered the country without legal permission. Guzmán said that Prince William was no safer statistically while they had the program than nearby localities without it, and ICE made the county’s immigrant community feel less safe and more hesitant to report a crime they were the victim of, such as a robbery or domestic violence, for fear of being deported.

“The vision for Virginia should be a place where diversity is embraced and not disrespected,” Guzmán said. “It should be a place where people feel safe, and feeling safe means that you should be comfortable calling the police when there is a crime, regardless of your immigration status.”

Guzmán said she has heard from constituents that health care and access to higher education are important issues.

“Your credit score or your eligibility for a loan should not define whether you should go to college,” Guzmán said. “If you have good grades, if you’re a good citizen, you should have the opportunity to go to college, and college affordability is definitely what young voters want.”

Written by Will Gonzalez, Capital News Service. Top Image: Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzmán; photos via Virginia General Assembly

In Local and Regional Jails, a Patchwork Response to COVID-19

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State and local efforts to keep COVID out of jails have been hobbled by poor oversight and unambitious policy, advocates say.

At the time the Governor announced his early release plan, Letiesha Gordon’s son, Dayon Jones, was serving the final months of a non-violent felony sentence in Riverside Regional Jail, near Petersburg. As soon as the plan took effect, Gordon began a crusade to secure her son’s release. But when she requested an “Offender Appeal for COVID-19 Early Release” form for her son, she says the counselor she spoke with at Riverside did not even know such a form existed. 

In the months that followed, Gordon called the jail repeatedly; she emailed Mayor Levar Stoney, Governor Ralph Northam, and a senator; she sent several letters. “I know that they thought I was crazy but I was just a mother,” said Gordon, who is the founder of the non-profit A Better Day Than Yesterday, which works with incarcerated people after their release. “I didn’t even contact them on behalf of my organization because it was not about business at that point. It was about my son’s safety.”

After Initial Drop, Decarceration Stalls

This past spring the populations of local and regional jails decreased significantly. From March to April, the total population of Virginia’s jails decreased by 17 percent, and the number of people committed for misdemeanors dropped by 67 percent. However this decline was not enough to keep incarcerated people safe from COVID-19, advocates say, and in recent months the rate of releases has stalled. In October, RCJC’s incarcerated population exceeded 700 for the first time since March, rising from a low of 633 in July. Over half of those incarcerated in RCJC are pre-trial detainees, as of October, meaning they are being held prior to conviction.

“It is irresponsible to say that we’re trying to do the best for the people, but we’re placing them in positions where they could potentially die versus getting their day in court,” said Sheba Williams, who directs the non-profit Nolef Turns and serves on Mayor Stoney’s Task Force on Reimagining Public Safety.

On March 19th, as COVID spread through Virginia communities, Governor Northam declined to use his pardon power to release prisoners. Instead, his office issued guidance to local criminal justice officials suggesting they use sentence modifications, issue summonses when possible, and consider incarceration alternatives. Then a month later, in an April special session, the Virginia legislature gave the Department of Corrections (DOC) the power to release inmates with a record of good behavior and less than a year on their sentence: a category that included around 2,000 of the state’s roughly 30,000 prisoners. These statewide release policies impact local and regional jails because people with felony sentences of under three years, including Leteisha Gordon’s son, are usually held under contract in jails. 

Roughly half of those deemed eligible for release by DOC have been released to date.

Lack of Oversight 

Part of the problem, political consultant Jessica Pishko says, is that state and local officials have very little authority over sheriffs, who run local jails and serve on regional jail boards. Beyond the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” and an antiquated state law designed to prevent extra-judicial hangings, Sheriffs have almost full discretion over how, or if, they address the risk of COVID in their jails, according to Pishko. (Danville’s sheriff, for example, only made masks mandatory for jail employees after reports of a 72-person outbreak at his jail last month.)

Sheriffs also appear to have the final say on what COVID-related information is revealed to the public. According to Dr. Danny Avula, Director of the Richmond City Health District (RCHD), RCHD is not allowed to release information about COVID rates in Henrico jails or RCJC without permission from those jails’ sheriffs. This has concerning implications. If the Department of Health must have a sheriffs’ goodwill to understand and address health risks inside of local jails, health officials can hardly serve as effective watchdogs in cases of disease outbreak. “There’s little accountability, little oversight, there is zero transparency when we’re talking about the public,” said Sheba Williams, describing the COVID situation in Virginia prisons and jails.

According to Yohance Whitaker of Legal Aid Justice Center, even with significantly reduced jail populations, it is difficult to maintain social distancing in facilities like RCJC. Many local and regional jails have enforced weeks-long periods of isolation as a result. “Prisons and jails and detention facilities are known amplifiers of infectious disease,” Whitaker said. “Measures to keep the illness from spreading like social distancing [and] washing your hands on a regular basis are nearly impossible in such confining spaces.”

A number of inmates interviewed by RVA Mag also questioned the efficacy of RCJC’s lockdown measuring, claiming poor sanitation in common spaces allowed for transmission of the virus even without extended person-to-person contact. According to RCJC inmate Emanuel Crawford, his pod is cleaned once a day by incarcerated people who are not given COVID-informed sanitation guidelines. 

“You might have a lazy inmate who just say look, I’m’a clean this and it’ll be alright – and then you just jeopardized everybody,” said Crawford. “In a situation like this, you should be making it mandatory that certain things be sanitized properly. Not only at night, but in the afternoon. Give us the equipment to do this two or three times a day.”

Jail deputies frequently interact with people experiencing medical or mental health crises but, beyond a high-school education, there are no training requirements for Sheriff’s deputies in the State of Virginia. How, or whether, employees are trained is left up to each sheriff’s discretion. This leads to a dynamic, Pishko says, where deputies with minimal training and no social-work experience are given power over vulnerable, often mentally unwell individuals. “I sometimes compare jails to a hospital,” said Pishko. “Picture a hospital where none of the staff want to be there. You have a bunch of sick people, but you have nurses who are like, ‘Whatever.’ ‘I don’t feel good.’ ‘Whatever.’ It gets scary, people die.”

Riverside Regional Jail. Photo via Facebook.

Administrative Harm 

Our legal system has long been stacked against the accused, especially Black and brown people and poor people. But, along with new dangers, the pandemic has also brought new legal and administrative barriers in Richmond-area jails and courts, limiting individuals’ access to counsel and gumming up an already slow legal process, according to Richmond’s head public defender, Tracy Paner. 

In response to the pandemic, the State Supreme Court has suspended defendant’s statutory right to a “speedy trial,” eliminating the five-month maximum waiting period between trials for people facing state charges. (“Everybody awaiting trial is in a holding pattern,” Paner said in October. “There’s no way for the defense to require it to go forward.”) Meanwhile, federal jury trials were suspended back in April. In Richmond they resumed, at a much-reduced rate, in October and November. This means that, if you were incarcerated in RCJC and received a federal charge in April, you could still be behind bars awaiting your day in court. 

During this period, your access to confidential legal counsel might also have been significantly limited. Since “contact visiting” ended in March, Paner says, lawyers generally have two options for speaking with their clients: through a glass wall or by video. But if a client is in two-week quarantine, either because they are COVID-positive or have recently arrived, the jail requires lawyers to use confidential video-conferencing. This presents two problems, according to Paner. First, the video is often poor quality, and sometimes the tablets inmates use do not work at all. Second, the confidential video-conferencing may not actually be confidential.

“I have seen it, other attorneys have seen it,” said Paner. “We are exiting from the visiting area and we can hear the speaker on the deputy’s computer. We can hear another attorney’s conversation with the client. We have had deputies who think they are helping us listening because there’s a time limit on the video meetings.”

Paner said that, though the public defender’s office has been “very proactive” in seeing bond motions for people with pre-existing conditions, it has not had much success. “The judges are saying things like, well, I know somebody who had it and it wasn’t that bad,” she said, referring to COVID. Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo, who blocked the removal of Confederate statues, has referred to the coronavirus in court as “the wuhan flu.”

Cash Bail Is Alive and Well

In 2018, former Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA) Michael Herring announced that prosecutors in Richmond would no longer seek cash bail for defendants awaiting trial. Though the CA’s office also adheres to this policy under Colette McEachin’s leadership, Paner says prosecutors’ actions still perpetuate the cash bail system.

“The attorneys from the commonwealth do not say the word ‘I object’ to releasing someone in the courtroom for low-level felonies,” Paner said. “But what they do is stand there with records and say, ‘In 1992, he was charged with robbery but it was dismissed.’ That means — wasn’t him, didn’t happen, couldn’t prove it. So they would stand there and bring up things, from 20 years ago or more, that weren’t convictions, in an attempt to sway the judges. The letter of the policy might be followed, but certainly not the spirit.”

“Our policy hasn’t changed,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin when asked about cash bail. “We still don’t seek cash bail in most situations. Generally, the only time we do is if the defendant is a threat to himself or others, or is a flight risk, which are the two bond determinations that are supposed to be made by statute. Ultimately, anything we recommend is up to the judge, and sometimes the judge agrees with us, and sometimes he doesn’t.”

Whether the fault lies with judges and magistrates, prosecutors, or some combination of both, Richmond’s cash bail continues apace. In early September, The Richmond Community Bail Fund identified 98 people in four local facilities incarcerated because they could not afford bail. (These numbers, acquired by raking through inmate databases and entering Freedom of Information Act Requests, are not comprehensive.) The combined cost of the bonds for these individuals was about $450,000, according to Luca Suede, co-director of the Richmond Community Bail Fund. 

“That’s about a hundred people that judges across different counties have already determined could be released,” Suede said. “Now, obviously everybody should be released. I don’t give a fuck how a judge feels. But in the State’s rhetoric — who has the kind of power to do these releases — there is already criteria that’s being deployed.”

Northam’s guidance to Virginia jails stops short of recommending bail be waived or discontinued, however. Instead, it asks jails to “consider ways to decrease the number of low-risk offenders being held without bail.” 

Protesters at Richmond City Justice Center, June 2020. Photo by Kegham Hovsepian, via Facebook.

“They can get over it together”

In May, Leteisha Gordon’s fears for her son’s safety were confirmed when Riverside Regional experienced COVID outbreak: 36 people at Riverside tested positive, including Gordon’s son. (Fortunately, Dayon Jones did not end up experiencing any serious symptoms of COVID-19.) When Gordon learned her son had tested positive and was on lockdown with another COVID-positive inmate, she called the jail to express her concerns. A sergeant, she says, told her: “They can get over it together.”

“This is somebody that’s helpless,” said Gordon. “He’s in jail. He can’t get to any kind of emergency assistance to help himself. And you don’t have his mother there, so for them to tell me that it was really heartbreaking. You have no idea.”

Finally in June, weeks after her son had tested positive for COVID-19, his counselor called him into his office with Gordon on the phone. He gave her son the form to sign and said it would take three weeks to be processed. After weeks emailing, phone calling and letter writing, Gordon had finally succeeded. A form her son should have had access to months ago — a form that, she insists, would have secured his release as a non-violent offender with asthma — had finally materialized. By that time though, it hardly mattered: Gordon’s son was scheduled to be released on July 13, three days later. 

All her effort didn’t save her son a single day in jail.

Top Photo via Riverside Regional Jail

Virginia Voters, Legislators Split on Redistricting Amendment

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No one in Virginia likes gerrymandering, but there’s a significant difference of opinion in how to fix it. The amendment Virginians vote on tomorrow offers one plan, but some progressive voices in the Commonwealth feel it’s not the best move.

Before Kelly Herring voted in the presidential election, she was undecided on a key vote, and it wasn’t who she was going to elect for president. 

Herring wasn’t sure how to vote on a Virginia constitutional amendment that will change the process of redrawing congressional and state legislative districts. 

After every 10-year census, the General Assembly is responsible for drawing new congressional and state legislature districts, over which the governor has veto power. The majority of congressional and state legislative districts in Virginia were redrawn after the 2010 U.S. Census, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the General Assembly and the executive branch. The maps will be redrawn again next year with final census counts.

The proposed amendment would put the mapmaking power into the hands of a bipartisan commission. It’s the final step needed to amend the state constitution after state legislators passed the redistricting amendment for two consecutive years.

Kelly Herring, a Norfolk resident, was unsure how she was going to vote on a proposed redistricting amendment in the November presidential election. Photo by Melissa Blue.

Herring is one of millions of Virginians who will weigh in on the amendment — one of two on the current ballot. 

“There was one local issue that I went back and forth on too, but the amendment was a big one,” Herring said. 

The commission would be composed of eight state legislators and eight citizens. An equal number of Democratic and Republican legislators from each chamber of the Virginia General Assembly would be appointed by the political party leadership. Legislative leaders also would recommend people for the citizen positions, which would be selected by retired circuit court judges. 

New legislative district maps approved by the commission would go to the General Assembly for a vote. If any are rejected, the commission would be required to produce new maps. If rejected again, the Virginia Supreme Court would establish the new districts.

The amendment requires maps to be drawn in accordance with federal and state law requirements that address racial and ethnic fairness, including the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. Maps also need to “provide, where practicable, opportunities for racial and ethnic communities to elect candidates of their choice.”

Some Virginia lawmakers oppose the amendment. They believe it gives legislators more power to choose voters as opposed to voters choosing legislators.

“You have four party leaders that not only control the process, but control the appointment and representation on this commission,” said Del. Lashrecse D. Aird, D-Petersburg. “Ultimately what you get, is legislators actually compounding their party and hanging on to control in the process of map-drawing.”

Delegate Lashrecse Aird. Photo from virginiageneralassembly.gov

Legislators passed a measure in the spring that establishes standards for redistricting. The bill, introduced by Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News, is intended to prohibit racial gerrymandering, or the manipulation of boundaries that ultimately favors one political party. The measure sets criteria for drawing legislative districts, which includes abiding by equal population requirements, following laws related to racial and ethnic fairness, and creating contiguous districts.

“The Voting Rights Act has been under attack since the day it was signed in 1965,” Price said. “There is nothing that prevents it from being further gutted, so our argument is; don’t just mention it, actually put the protections in there so even if it fails on the federal level, we have the state level that’s protecting us.”

Opponents of the amendment argue that the recently passed redistricting law deals with the effects of racial gerrymandering better than the proposed amendment. Opponents say that passing the amendment could potentially prevent further progress by the General Assembly since it’s difficult to overturn the constitution.

“We have always said that we wanted to prohibit gerrymandering, which is ultimately the main problem that we’ve experienced with map-drawing in Virginia,” Aird said. “There is no language in this amendment that would prevent gerrymandering.”

Nicholas Goedert, an assistant professor of political science at Virginia Tech supports the amendment. Other states have changed the criteria for redistricting but it proved ineffective, he said.

“I think changing the process is much more important as a general rule than changing the criteria,” Goedert said. “Because there are a lot of ways that legislatures can get around the wording of the criteria and still implement a map that suits their interests.”

Goedert said the amendment isn’t perfect, but sees Virginia passing both the amendment and redistricting bill as a step in the right direction to creating more demographically balanced districts.

“We’ve seen, throughout the states that have adopted commissions, that the commissioners take their jobs seriously, and for the most part succeed in drawing acceptable maps,” Goedert said. “There’s always been a couple of exceptions, but I would be optimistic on that point.”

Nicholas Goedert. Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech.

The redistricting amendment is endorsed by several democratic groups, including the ACLU of Virginia and the League of Women Voters of Virginia. Herring, who identifies as progressive, decided to do more research after seeing there were progressive groups on both sides, and ultimately decided to vote no on the amendment.

“The Black Legislative Caucus and the NAACP both spoke out against it, and ultimately gerrymandering is an issue that affects minority voters more,” Herring said. “So, I figured this is probably an issue where I should listen.”

Written by Will Gonzalez, Capital News Service. Top Images of gerrymandered VA maps from VPAP.

The Million Dollar Question: An Exclusive Q&A With Jennifer Carroll Foy

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RVA Magazine spoke to state Senator and candidate for governor Jennifer Carroll Foy about career politicians, the relationship between police and the military, and making real progress in Virginia.

Last month, as the Virginia General Assembly debated a variety of police reform bills, RVA Magazine sat down with Jennifer Carroll Foy, a member of the House of Delegates, representing Virginia’s 2nd House of Delegates district in NoVA. A public defender and former magistrate, Carroll Foy was also one of the first women to graduate from Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Carroll Foy is a 2021 candidate for Governor of Virginia, and hopes to be the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. 

DD: Good afternoon, Delegate Carroll Foy, and thank you for sitting with us. You’ve been quoted saying, “The politics of the past are not the change we need, and the politicians of the past won’t save us.” Were you referring to your opponents in the 2021 gubernatorial race?

JCF: If we want real change, we need a new leader with a clear vision on how to move us forward. There are career politicians running in this gubernatorial race, and with this movement, people want change. [2021] will be a consequential election: trying to keep the majority, defeat this invisible enemy called COVID-19, and jump start our economy here in Virginia. It takes creative solutions, and the status quo isn’t working any longer.

DD: To voters who look at Terry McAuliffe and might imagine a potentially stabilizing force with the experience to help Virginia through a challenging time, what would you say?

JCF: Now’s the time for new leadership, because we’ve never had a governor who has governed during a racial reckoning such as the one we have now. No one has ever governed during a recession more akin to the Great Depression. No one has ever governed in addressing the global pandemic that we have currently. So experience matters — and you have to have the right type of experience. As a former foster mom, public defender, magistrate judge, community organizer, I am here for the people, and I’ve always been on the side of fighting for the people. Do you want someone who has real world experience and who’s in this for them, or someone who may be in this for themselves?

DD: Could you point to anything during McAuliffe’s governorship where you felt he was not on the right side of people’s interests?

JCF: The Mountain Valley Pipeline is something that should’ve never happened when we’re addressing climate change here in the Commonwealth. We’re talking about racial equity here in the Commonwealth, knowing that it was going to go through a historically Black community in Union Hill. There’s a number of things I can point to say, hey we can do better, right? 

Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy/Facebook

DD: You mentioned “career politicians” earlier. Would you consider Senator [Jennifer] McClellan a career politician?

JCF: Yeah, she’s been in the General Assembly for almost two decades. [When I] say career politician, I mean people who are entrenched in politics. People are looking for a woman of the people, someone who understands a Virginian’s everyday struggle.

DD: Senator McClellan has supported progressive police reform bills during special session. For those on the left looking for legislative and policy contrasts between two gubernatorial candidates, how would you differentiate your record and platforms from McClellan’s?

JCF: While I’ve been in the General Assembly, I have been one of the most impactful and accomplished legislators, fighting for workers and women and families since day one. I’ve never taken a dime from Dominion, knowing they are a regulative monopoly here in Virginia. I’m for robust transformational policy, such as legalizing marijuana, reforming our criminal justice system. As the first public defender ever elected to the General Assembly, I have been championing cash bail reform and other policies to make our criminal justice system more fair and more equitable. Not because these are sexy, trending topics, but because I’ve always been in this fight, and I’ve kept all my promises made since I ran in 2017, whether it is cleaning up coal ash throughout Virginia [or] helping to expand Medicaid and give teacher salary increases.

DD: Increasingly, progressives are showing skepticism about the Virginia Democratic Party. Are you confident you can build a coalition to push through progressive policy?

JCF: Absolutely. I take it back to my training at Virginia Military Institute. Being one of the first women to ever graduate from one of the top military colleges in this country taught me how to work alongside any and everyone, because I am focused on the mission. 

If you are throwing around divisive rhetoric and are known for partisan politics, you won’t get anything done. How I’ve been able to be effective is leaning on that military training I’ve had and continuing, even in the majority, to reach across the aisle and pass a lot of my bills in a bipartisan fashion.

DD: Let’s talk a little bit about the military. 43 percent of the American military is made up of people of color. Many families of color see the military as their best hope for socioeconomic advancement. What are your thoughts on our American model, which leverages the promise of economic advancement to entice communities with fewer resources into the military and potentially into combat?

JCF: Going into the Armed Forces is an honorable task. Many people do it for many different reasons, whether it’s financial stability and security for themselves and their family. You go through a maturation process which I think is equivalent to nothing else, and it teaches life skills and politics. I think it teaches honor and integrity and public service in way that I don’t think you can get really anywhere else. I think it’s great and I would like to see more people, especially in this current climate, understand and acknowledge and respect the sacrifices that these individuals who enter the military are facing, especially with the recent attacks from Trump and some other cohorts, of questioning military leaders’ motives and calling people who are prisoners of war and died on the battlefield “losers” and things of that nature. This is a toxic climate right now, and I think we have to work vigorously to counter that with the truth. And the truth is the men and women in uniform are to be respected and honored above all else.

Carroll Foy during her time at VMI. Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy/Facebook

DD: In my view, we have to differentiate between institutions and individuals. Observers have drawn direct links between US domestic policing and US international military actions, explicitly connecting regimes like Israel to US police training. Our government, via the CIA, also fought to uphold South African apartheid, by helping to criminalize and locate Nelson Mandela before his imprisonment. Given that you’ve participated in the US military establishment, do you have a critique of the US military’s connection to structures of inequality worldwide, and how it may also connect to our domestic policing issues?

JCF: I think that’s a really good question, and so to answer your question: have I really sat and thought about those connections? I haven’t. What I can say is that when you think of the military, you have to think of individuals who are taking orders. Right? We have a Commander-in-Chief you have to listen to, and so if a soldier is thinking about questioning or debating orders, you’re talking about people’s lives at risk. You’re talking about missions being compromised, and so the problem is when people who are nefarious use the military as an extension or arm or tool or weapon to strike against their enemies or people they don’t deem desirable.

DD: What about the mode of intervention of the US Military, where we essentially occupy sovereign countries and install governments via various modes of persuasion, violence, and politics — are you critical of that mode of operation?

JCF: Yes, so it’s a hard question to answer, and here’s why: when we insert ourselves into foreign countries’ policies and we bomb these countries or we do things that is to their detriment, then do I think we oftentimes have an obligation to assist and help in their recovery and to build them back up? Yes I do. 

I am not critical of the US military for taking orders, and doing something they’re required to do. I would be more critical of the legislators and the Commander-in-Chief who have ordered them to do so, and so it’s about questioning their motives and their logic for jeopardizing the lives of Americans, of citizens, of soldiers. So it depends on what country you’re talking about. It depends on why we’re there, how long we’re going to be there, why we’re occupying. That’s why it’s hard for me to give a specific answer because it’s just different, country by country, situation by situation. 

But for the most part, I understand what it means to be ordered to do something, and you have to obey that order. If we have an issue with it, then we need to take it up with the people who are making decisions and not the people who are executing and doing what they’ve been charged and sworn to do.

DD: Are you critical of our relationship with Israel?

JCF: So that is something that I have to say that I’ve been thinking about. I can follow up with you on that.

Carroll Foy and her son Alex at the General Assembly on the day Virginia ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy/Facebook

DD: Would you commit to completely ridding the Virginia State Police of its inventory of military equipment that was provided by the United States military?

JCF: There’s nothing that I can think of right now that I would have exception to, so I’m going to say yes.

DD: Do you support a complete banning of no-knock warrants in Virginia? 

JCF: Yes, I do support banning no-knock warrants here in Virginia.

DD: There’s a split among some of the leading activists: some believe that civilian review boards should be mandatory and legislated down in detail in the bill, and others believe they should be optional and that municipalities should each decide the way these boards look. Where do you stand? 

JCF: Yes, I initially favored mandating because I felt like that is the direction we need to go, and some communities or localities may be reluctant because this is change and change can be scary. 

However, I’ve been hearing from a lot of the same activists that you are referring to, and they’re talking to me about why they don’t want it mandatory and that they don’t want these localities feeling it’s being pushed upon them then it’s going to be a lot of hostility. I’m still debating how I’m gonna fall on that, but I can tell you initially I was definitely for mandating civilian review boards because I think that’s one of the only ways you’re definitely going to get it in the localities who, let’s be honest, need it the most.

DD: At the moment, we have a conservative Democratic establishment standing in the way of the most aggressive police reforms in Virginia. If you agree we need to move the needle as far as the priorities and agenda of the establishment, how would you do so?

JCF:  That has been the million-dollar question. Democrats aren’t monolithic; you have people who represent different areas. Sometimes we’re not able to be as bold and transformational as we want because we may be outnumbered by centrists or moderates, people who don’t believe in complete bold change. 

The way that you alter that is to continue to elect leaders who will be bold and transformational until they are the majority. Then you can push this type of legislation through. Until that happens, there will always be a wall there, or a siphoning off of bills or parts of a bill that we really need in order to make change. That’s what at the end of the day has to happen. 

DD: Do you have a message that you want to send to Ralph Northam, Terry McAuliffe, Dick Saslaw, Creigh Deeds, Scott Surovell — Democrats who have been active in diluting and stifling the more progressive versions of the bills?

JCF: I work with many of these people, and I’ve gone toe to toe with a lot of them on a lot of good bills. I just have to continue to advocate and lobby and hope they see the light. But I’m confident because I know Virginia is trending to be bluer, and there won’t be a place for people who want incremental change, or who want to teeter on the fence. I think the change we need is going to happen on its own, and I’m excited to be in the Governor’s seat to help lead that change.

Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy/Facebook

DD:  The previous Commonwealth’s Attorney declined to bring charges in Marcus-David Peters’ case. Colette McEachin, the current Commonwealth’s Attorney, has said repeatedly that she’s looking at it. Richmond City Councilman Mike Jones has openly advocated for reopening that case. Do you have a position as to whether CA McEachin should reopen that case?

JCF: I do believe that the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office should reopen the case. It should be thoroughly investigated. He was having a mental health emergency, he was nude, there was no threat of harm or danger at that time — you can clearly see he didn’t have a weapon, given the fact that he had no clothes on.

Again, it goes to the lack of experience, the lack of training I believe these officers have, [the] crisis intervention training and de-escalation skills that they needed. They could have readily identified that this man is having a mental health emergency and called community services board and dispatched them out — come calm him down, and hopefully get him emergency custody orders so he can be treated. Oftentimes people are going undiagnosed, or they’re off their medications for whatever reason, and this is what happens. I have many clients like this, and I greatly empathize. I think the case should have another look at and should be thoroughly and independently investigated.

DD: What’s your position on marijuana legalization?

JCF: I support it so much that I am carrying the legalization of marijuana bill, even though some Republicans and Democrats have asked me not to. While I think that decriminalization will have a place in helping to reduce mass incarceration, it does absolutely nothing, according to a 2017 Virginia Crime Commission study, to address the racial disparities that Black and brown people suffer from our possession of marijuana laws. 

It’s time for Virginia to lead, and one of the things we can do is legalize the simple possession of marijuana for personal use. After that, we can tax and regulate it, and use that money for projects we haven’t had the revenue stream to be able to do.

I look forward to passing that bill next session. Statistics and polling show that the overwhelming majority of Virginians want the legalization of marijuana. It’s time for us to listen to the people we represent and get this done.

DD: Are you worried at all about the possibility of a third party on the left disrupting the Democratic gubernatorial race in 2021? 

JCF: It does not concern me. I’m not running against anyone else, I am running for the people of Virginia. At the end of the day, I know that I am the right leader for this moment, and that’s exactly why I’m running for Governor of Virginia.

DD: Are you confident your leadership is best positioned within the Democratic Party structure?

JCF: I’m a tried and true Democrat. People call me progressive, and that’s fine. I’m a strong Christian and I adhere to my Christian principles of housing the homeless and feeding the hungry and helping to make sure that everyone can work one job, put food on the table, have access to healthcare, and go to safe school. If that’s progressive, that’s great, but it’s just who I was raised to be.

Top Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy/Facebook

Bob Good’s Path To Congress: Inciting Fear of Transgender People

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Bob Good, who successfully wrested the Republican nomination for Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District seat away from incumbent Denver Riggleman, is using fears of “a man dressed as a woman” in his campaign literature.

We haven’t checked in on the Republican Party of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District since last year, when the coalition that had sent Denver Riggleman to Congress in 2018 was, only a year later, publicly tearing itself apart in heated fashion due to the fact that Riggleman had officiated a same-sex wedding between two of his former campaign staffers. Since then, things have only gotten more heated and dramatic, culminating earlier this summer with a party convention that chose to nominate Campbell County Board of Supervisors member Bob Good to run on the Republican ticket in November instead of Riggleman.

Riggleman has recovered well — he’s remained active in Congress despite suddenly finding himself a lame-duck Representative, and is now apparently mulling a third-party run for Governor in 2021. Meanwhile, Virginia’s Fifth District has found itself with a choice on its hands that is far different from the one it faced in 2018. And with Bob Good on the Republican ticket, it’s a significantly more controversial one as well.

You see, until January of this year, Bob Good was Director of Athletics at Liberty University. And now that you know that, it may not surprise you very much to learn that Good has an extremely negative attitude toward the LGBTQ community. Even before he’d announced his intention to run against Riggleman for the Republican nomination in the Fifth District, he condemned Riggleman’s having officiated a gay wedding on his Facebook page. In one comment, he said that “supporting gay rights” meant that “Denver Riggleman does not represent the values of conservative Republicans in the 5th District.” In another, he said, “You can’t flaunt your apparently progressive/liberal values in front of the conservative Republican base in the district and expect to not catch any flack for it.”

Riggleman officiating the wedding of two of his campaign staffers. (photo by Christine Riggleman)

After Good officially declared his campaign for Riggleman’s Congressional seat, he said at a February campaign event, “I have a biblical view of marriage, very different from the congressman’s view on that.” Meanwhile, on Good’s website, he republished a letter from 11 Fifth District voters, originally sent to the Bedford Bulletin, in which they characterize homosexuality as a mental illness. “Homosexuality is a very complex subject that medical science has confirmed is psychological moreso than genetic,” they write, in the midst of arguing in favor of voting Good into Congress.

Now, with a recent campaign mailing inviting clergy members to meet with Good about the importance of “religious freedom” — a loaded phrase, to say the least, where LGBTQ rights are concerned — Good has used the existence of transgender people, and specifically trans women, as an opportunity for fear-mongering.

“What happens when a male member of your congregation goes on vacation and returns four weeks later as a female?” the invitation read. “What do your church bylaws state regarding a man dressed as a woman who attends a church function and expects to use the women’s restroom?” Though the email using this language wasn’t signed by Good, it was sent by the Good campaign’s “Faith Coalition leader,” Travis Witt. The subject line read in part, “When a man becomes a woman.”

The invitation also used the spectre of the Virginia Values Act, passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam earlier this year, as a bugbear. In the mailer, Good’s campaign claims that the Virginia Values Act — which prohibits discrimination in housing, employment, and public accomodation to anyone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity — infringes upon… yup, you guessed it: religious freedom.

“Bob Good, candidate for Congress, is interested in preserving religious liberties as defined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Witt’s invitation to Fifth District clergy read. “He is extremely concerned about the recent changes that now affect both large and small churches.”

Bob Good meets with clergy in Madison County (Photo via Bob Good for Congress/Facebook)

This move from a relatively moderate Republican who supported LGBTQ rights to a candidate who’s centered his campaign on attacking our rights has, in the minds of many Democrats, put the Fifth District into play in November. From being a state that went Republican in presidential elections for over 40 years straight, Virginia has transformed significantly in recent years. As of now, only four of Virginia’s 13 legislators in Congress are Republican. On the state level, Democrats hold both the governor’s mansion and both houses of the General Assembly — something that, at the time of the 2019 election, hadn’t been true in over two decades. For Democrats to take one of those four remaining Republican Congressional districts would be a huge coup. And it’s one Fifth District Democrats hope to achieve with their current candidate, Cameron Webb.

Webb, a doctor who teaches at the University of Virginia, would become the first Black physician to serve in Congress if elected in November. Political experts still see the district as leaning Republican, but polling shows Webb as close as two points away from Good, and between the possibility that Webb will draw a higher Black turnout in the election and Good’s choice to focus on opposition to LGBTQ rights, Democrats hope they can close that gap completely.

“We’re in the middle of a pandemic that has infected over 100,000 Virginians and a recession that has put millions across the country out of work, but all Bob Good wants to focus on is same-sex marriages,” Grant Fox, a Virginia Democratic Party spokesman, told the New York Times. “Virginians need help, and Bob Good is spending his time convening church officials to figure out how to best discriminate against the LGBTQ community.”

The Human Rights Campaign has also rallied around Webb, and condemned Good’s discriminatory positions. “The 1.3 million Equality Voters across Virginia have no patience for this type of divisiveness and hate,” said HRC president Alphonso David in a statement. “Bob Good might have been able to win a low-turnout party caucus by attacking LGBTQ people, but Virginia voters showed in 2018 and 2019 that attacking LGBTQ people is no winning strategy. Transphobia and anti-LGBTQ attacks are unacceptable. We need leaders like Dr. Cameron Webb in Congress who will bring us together and expand opportunity and rights for everyone, not amplify hate and division.”

Dr. Cameron Webb (Photo via Facebook)

Will the Fifth District’s Republican Party allow far-right intractability over LGBTQ rights to derail their ability to maintain representation in a county that ostensibly leans Republican? Or is this going to be one of those times that we find out we share a state with people whose intolerance runs deeper than we ever expected? We’ll learn in less than three months; in the meantime, Cameron Webb’s campaign could sure use your help.

Top Photo via BobGoodForCongress.com