RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu

Fairfax Accusers Grant Interviews To CBS News

|

Topics: , , , , , ,

“In my ideal world, I’d want him to resign,” said Vanessa Tyson, one of two women to accuse Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault.

Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson, the two women who accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault earlier this year, granted interviews to CBS News this week. Those interviews aired Monday and Tuesday on CBS This Morning.

“In my ideal world, I’d want him to resign,” Tyson told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King. Tyson alleges she and Fairfax met in 2004, while both working for the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Tyson, who has accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex in a Boston hotel room, told CBS that what began as consensual “quickly turned into sexual assault.”

“I cannot believe, given my obvious distress, that Mr. Fairfax thought this forced sexual act was consensual. To be very clear, I did not want to engage in oral sex with Mr. Fairfax and I never gave any form of consent,” Tyson said in a statement back in February.

The CBS interview with Tyson, her first TV interview since the allegations were made public, aired Monday on “CBS This Morning.” “I was so ashamed. I was so humiliated,” Tyson told CBS in the interview. She later noted that she had volunteered at a rape crisis center at the time.

Tyson’s allegation against Fairfax became public a few days after a racist yearbook photo linked to Gov. Ralph Northam saw calls for the governor to resign, with Fairfax to be his replacement.

Tyson, an associate professor of political science at Scripps College in Claremont, California, cited her political science students and calls for Fairfax to take the governorship as reasons for coming forward.

“I don’t want this to ever, ever, ever happen to them,” Tyson said.

Meredith Watson came forward days after Tyson, accusing Fairfax of raping her while the two were students at Duke University in 2000. Watson told King that she felt Fairfax had assaulted her due to prior knowledge that she’d been assaulted before.

“He knew that the year prior that I had been raped by someone and that nothing was done about it,” Watson told King. “And he was a very good friend to me. Which is why I never would’ve expected anything like this from him.”

Watson told King she had confronted Fairfax later about the alleged assault. She had left a campus party when she saw Fairfax arriving, but she said Fairfax ran after her, calling her to talk to him.

“I finally stopped and I turned around. And all I said to him was, ‘Why? Why would you do that to me?'” said Watson. “And he said, ‘I knew because of what happened to you last year that if I got you in the right situation, you would be too afraid to say or do anything about it.'”

Watson proceeded to elaborate in great detail about the alleged assault, saying that it would have been impossible for Fairfax to think it was consensual.

If you have to hold someone down, it’s not consensual,” she told King.

In response to the allegations, Fairfax issued a news release stating he had hired a former FBI polygraph expert, former FBI Jeremiah Hanafin, to administer a polygraph to him, and that polygraph showed that Fairfax was being truthful.

“Mr. Hanafin is a retired FBI polygraph expert who was previously chosen by Dr. Vanessa Tyson’s attorney, Ms. Debra Katz, to perform a polygraph examination of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford relating to Dr. Ford’s allegations against then-Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” the news release said.

Fairfax said in a February speech that “the truth is on my side” and cautioned against “political lynchings without any due process.”

“And we talk about hundreds, at least 100 terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia, under those very same auspices,” Fairfax said. “And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment, with nothing but accusations and no facts, and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing.”

Barry Pollack, an attorney for Fairfax, said in the same news release that a criminal investigation, which Fairfax has called for, would exonerate the Lieutenant Governor.

“All serious allegations deserve to be taken seriously, but not all allegations are true,” Pollack said in the statement. “The public has a right to know if serious allegations made against the Lt. Governor are true, but the public also has a right to know if they are false.”

Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax (via Facebook)

Tyson, in response, told King that rather than an investigation, she preferred a public hearing before the Virginia General Assembly, in which she, Watson, and Fairfax would be before a committee and under oath. “Investigations often allow people in power to sweep things under the rug,” she told CBS news.

Republicans in the House of Delegates have supported a plan to hold public hearings on the Fairfax allegations this year, but have not set a date, CBS reports.

Virginia Democrats, including Senator Tim Kaine and former Governor Terry McAuliffe, have supported Fairfax’s accusers and called for his resignation.

“The allegations against Justin Fairfax are serious and credible,” McAuliffe wrote on Twitter. “It is clear to me that he can no longer effectively serve the people of Virginia as Lieutenant Governor. I call for his immediate resignation.”

Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson images via screencap/CBS News

Most Virginians Don’t Want Officials to Resign, Poll Finds

|

Topics: , , , , ,

Some want Northam, Fairfax, and Herring to resign. Some want them to stay in office. And almost half of Virginians polled just weren’t sure.

Virginians have low approval ratings of Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, but most people say no one should resign or be impeached, according to a recent poll by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. It found that of the state’s three top officials, Attorney General Mark Herring is the best-positioned to remain in office.

Over the past month, the three leaders, all Democrats, have been under scrutiny after several scandals, and some politicians and groups have called for their resignations.

  • Two women have accused Fairfax of sexual assault — allegations he has denied.
  • Northam has been in hot water after the discovery of a photograph in his medical school yearbook showing a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb. Northam initially apologized for the photograph and then denied he was in the picture. He later admitted to putting “a little bit of” shoe polish on his face to imitate Michael Jackson in a 1984 dance competition.
  • After calling for Northam’s resignation, Attorney General Mark Herring apologized for wearing blackface when he was 19 years old to imitate a rapper.

With that backdrop, U.Va.’s Center for Politics asked a representative sample of Virginia adults about their opinions of Northam, Fairfax and Herring.

The poll found that of the three leaders, more people believe Fairfax should quit. Thirty-five percent believe Fairfax should resign, and 28 percent favored impeachment.

Only 17 percent of Virginians approve of the governor’s job performance. However, only 31 percent of respondents say he should resign, and 21 percent believe he should be impeached.

According to the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, there was a strong racial divide over whether Fairfax should resign. Thirty-nine percent of white respondents said they favored his resignation, compared with only 8 percent of black respondents.

Of the three officials, Herring had the fewest number of people suggesting he resign (19 percent) or be impeached (14 percent).

The poll involved interviewing 636 adults from Feb. 15-19. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

By Emily Holter, Capital News Service. Images via CNS

Community Leaders Ask Fairfax to Halt the Pipelines

|

Topics: , , , ,

Storm clouds gathered around St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as faith and community leaders prepared for their press conference on Tuesday following an earlier meeting with Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his staff on the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines. When the cameras started, though, the mood of the press conference was sunny.

“It was a very positive meeting,” said writer and attorney Jonathan Sokolow, who opened the press conference flanked by a dozen members of a variety of local activists, religious, and environmental groups, under the church’s exterior hallway.

“They were all very attentive, they took notes, they listened very carefully, seemed impressed with not only the factual information, but the human element that folks who are in the frontline communities fighting these pipelines brought to the table.”

Fairfax’s stance on the MVP and ACP has often stood at odds with Gov. Northam’s, who has continued to allow Dominion Energy’s construction work across multiple state lines and over a thousand rivers and streams, despite increasing outcry from the public, state lawmakers, and his own policy on renewable energy.

The meeting, organized by Beth Deel of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee and Preserve Bent Mountain, wasn’t solely focused on convincing Fairfax to take greater action against the pipelines. Among the topics discussed was a planned natural gas compressor station for the ACP set to be constructed in Union Hill. The Buckingham County district was founded in the 19th century by former slaves, and maintains a majority black population to this day. While Northam has not addressed this controversy, he had voiced concerns about a compressor station to be built near Mount Vernon in Maryland, which was later canceled by Dominion.

The cancellation of the Union Hill compressor station was one of three detailed requests made by the delegation to Fairfax, alongside further appeals to Northam and immediate, public condemnation of the pipelines. That delegation was led by Pastor Paul Wilson of the Union Hill and Union Grove Missionary Baptist Churches, and included Deel, Swami Dayananda of the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville, Trish McLawhorn of NRV Land, Air and Water Watch and Union Hill landowners John and Ruby Laury, who farm on their property.

“We definitely have concerns about emission controls and the contamination of our air and water and ground,” said John Laury, who lives “three-quarters of a mile” from the proposed location for the compressor station. While he admitted that the question of how Union Hill was chosen for this project remains unanswered, Laury said he appreciated the chance to have his voice heard by Fairfax.

“We’re taking time because we do cherish the air that we breathe, and also the water that we drink,” Ruby said.

The Laurys were two of several speakers to stress the racial implications of the pipelines, in addition to their social and economic costs. Special attention was made during the conference to the continued role of indigenous populations in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina in “environmental justice,” as well as the tree sitting protests along the planned paths of construction that have been the subject of scrutiny from local law enforcement and anti-terrorism agencies.

Noting Union Hill’s historic significance to the state, Chair of the Environmental Climate Justice Committee of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP Karen Campblin said: “This intrinsic value in our state is being overlooked and just being tossed aside for the sake of private capital gain.”

“We have communities that are being unheard and we ask that our elected officials listen to us and do what is right.”

As it turned out, Fairfax wouldn’t be the only political figure to be involved in the day’s events. House Representative Mark Keam, D-Fairfax, would make a surprise appearance near the conference’s end, disputing the “incorrect facts” provided by Dominion and other groups on the pipelines’ effects, and the population size and racial makeup of Union Hill’s residents.

Congressional candidate Jennifer Lewis was also in attendance, and shared her experience as President and founder of pipeline opposition group Friends of Augusta, her work documenting the effects construction has had on four potential stream crossings, and how this activism has shaped the public’s response to her campaign in Virginia’s 6th district for the better.

“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, this is a life issue,” Lewis said. “This is their livelihood, they wanted to pass this on to the next generation and now they can’t.”

Members of the delegation and speakers at the press conference will be attending an event held by The Poor People’s Campaign at the First Universalist Unitarian Church in Richmond on September 26. Registration is free and open to the public.

Press conference video from David Martin’s YouTube page.

Students March to Statehouse, Commemorating Victims Of Columbine On National School Walkout Day

|

Topics: , , , , , , ,

Roughly 200-300 people turned out for a student-organized rally on Brown’s Island today following a national school walk-out commemorating the Columbine shooting 19 years ago.

Richmond police provided a heavy presence at the rally and temporarily closed streets for a march to the state house steps, where speeches and musical performances continued before Governor Ralph Northam and Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax came out to give speeches of support.

On Brown’s Island, popular Instagram user Jessica Universe played acoustic guitar and sang an untitled song written for the event before Hermitage High School junior Sam Alburger addressed the crowd with some goals from the student movement.

Student Activists at Browns Island

“Like all of you, I’m ready for some damn common sense,” Alburger said, asking for consistent national background checks while criticizing politicians who he described as looking to score political points at the expense of addressing gun violence.

One of the many speakers that followed Alburger, Ta’Quan Grant, took up a popular theme with his fiery speech, addressing everyday gun violence from the perspective of “a public school student who grew up in Section 8 housing.” The candidate for Richmond School Board in the 7th district talked about facing regular gun violence, including a handgun he said someone pointed at him, before ending on a hopeful note. “Don’t fight for victory,” he told the crowd, because “We’ve already won. Fight like you already got it.”

Richmond Police Captain John O’Kleasky spoke with RVA Magazine to praise the students who he’s worked closely with as they planned their rally, saying, “They get an A+. We’ve been really impressed by their passion and maturity, and it’s been an honor to work with them.”

At the capital, the student speakers were joined by political leaders, including Osita Arebu, senior policy advisor to Mayor Levar Stoney. Arebu apologized for Stoney’s absence and shared his support. Like many of the speakers, she brought up common gun violence, including suicide and city shootings, and quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., on economic inequality in the cities, adding, “This is not just a gun control issue, this is a justice issue.”

The last student speaker was Carlos Brown, who gave an impressive speech with an off-the-cuff delivery-style, suggesting a bright future as a public speaker. Employing repetition to great effect, Brown talked about all the reasons he’d rather be in school today, before advocating political actions to address government inaction. “If your congressman won’t meet with you, vote them out,” he said, before listing victims of violence including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and the students of Parkland and Columbine.

Carlos Brown

He finished his speech with a callback to his opening, saying, “I wish I was in bio class right now, because that would mean we’d be living in our dream America,” a place free of random gun violence and school shootings, where people have equality and safety.

Before Northam took the stage, Lori Haas, the Virginia state director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence shared her own story as the parent of a student who was wounded at Virginia Tech. She recounted a call from her daughter 11 years ago, remembering that she said, “Hi mommy, I’ve been shot”.”

She proposed a series of solutions involving political engagement before saying, “I know people wish this wasn’t a partisan issue, but it is.” Haas pointed to the opposition in the government to gun regulations as almost universally a Republican problem and described Virginia as having “the poorest gun laws in the country,” before asking for better tracking of weapons that have been sold.

Northam Addressing the Student Activists

Haas invited members of Virginia’s House of Delegates and State Senate to join her before introducing Northam, who she praised for taking a strong stand on background checks even as a first-time State Senator from the rural Eastern Coast of Virginia.

The governor used his address to praise the students gathered and ask when will the marches and rallies lead to real, substantial change. “How many lives will we lose to preventable gun violence until we take measures to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them?” the governor asked.

Although he said he’s been disappointed, the governor struck an optimistic note, which he credited to the students assembled, saying, “After years of politicians failing to protect our students, you are taking measures into your own hands.”

Before wrapping up his speech, Northam drew laughs with cheeky praise for the assembly. “As governor I have a responsibility to tell you to stay in school,” he said, pausing for the laughs. “But I can’t think of anything you’d be learning that’s better [than this].”

Some of the best photos of the day can be found below:

Jessica Universe

Student Activism

#NeverAgain

Making a Difference

Northam Addressing Students

National School Walkout Day

Next Generation

Photos by Landon Shroder

First Lady Pam Northam Introduces Progressive Platform Over Post-Inaugural Brunch

|

Topics: , , , , , , ,

First Lady Pam Northam hosted a post-inauguration brunch headlined by Angela Patton, the CEO of Girls With A Change, a Richmond area non-profit that supports young women of color, in a ticketed event at the Jefferson Hotel this morning.

The brunch opened with a recital by the American Youth Harp Ensemble, a nationally-recognized ensemble that accepts youths regardless of financial means.

GFAC youth with Northam, Patton. Photo by AM

Patton’s opening remarks introduced her organization. “Girls For A Change starts with one of the most powerful and wasted resources on the planets: Girls. Specifically, girls of color.”

She introduced Karen Forget, an executive director of river conservation group Lynnhaven River NOW, and Northam’s former boss. Forget spoke about Northam’s background in education and ecology before introducing the new First Lady. “We will need to bring everyone to the table,” to fight challenges like climate change and rising sea levels, she said, “and I don’t know anyone better at that than Pam Northam.”

The Jefferson Ballroom. Photo by BW

Northam spoke to the importance of protecting water, noting that the tables were named after rivers all over Virginia, from the Shenandoah to smaller rivers like the Dan. “The next brunch will be a little different,” she said, referencing the splendor of the Jefferson ballroom. “I’ll invite you all to put on your waders and join me for a river clean-up.”

Following heavy applause, she extended an invitation to join her at a volunteer effort to clean up Richmond’s historic Evergreen Cemetery for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. day of service tomorrow, 9 – 12 PM.

After thanking the inaugural committee for choosing a vegetarian brunch, she teased the new governor, saying, “Ralph you can have a sandwich when we get home.”

American Youth Harp Ensemble. Photo BW

The importance of women carried through the event, from the all-woman harp ensemble, to her thank-you speech. She said she was singling out two more, Cerina Fairfax and Laura Herring, married to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, for their help with the Democratic sweep of the top offices.

Northam proposed to focus on early-education over the next four years. “I’m surrounded by neuroscientists,” she said as she spoke about the importance of pre-k and developing minds. “Let’s start at the beginning with our greatest treasures….our children.”

First Lady and Governor Northam. Photo by BW

Outgoing First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe drew praise for her work to provide “12 million additional meals for Virginia children,” and Northam said she would build on that work as well as a range of issues including healthcare, clean air, clean water, and spaces to play and learn.

She finished her remarks with two quotes. The first was a much-quoted line from The Summer Day, a poem by her favorite poet, Mary Oliver. “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Northam recruits volunteers after. Photo by BW

The second, from Michelle Obama, underscored the role of women and the importance of equality. “As women, we must stand up for ourselves. As women, we must stand up for each other. As women, we must stand up for justice for all.”

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. Photo by AM

In attendance were many of the newly-elected delegates, including Danica Roem, Debra Rodman, and Schuyler VanVelkenburg. Justin Fairfax was also spotted mingling with guests before the brunch program began.

Larkin Garbee and Angela Patton. Photo BW

Patton was sitting with local entrepreneur and philanthropist Larkin Garbee, a supporter of her organization. After the brunch, Patton spoke about the incoming administration. “Things are shifting fast. This opportunity wouldn’t even have been available to my mother, and she’s a young 70-years old.”

“Most everyone appreciates what we’re doing,” she said about the work, but she brought up that she’s had a few critics. “One gentleman today, just one, told me that we’re going backward. Working with girls of color isn’t about excluding anyone, though. We’re just tapping into the most vulnerable population with a goal of getting us caught up.”

Danielle Freeman-Jefferson. Photo BW

She’d brought several of the girls she works with, including Danielle Freeman-Jackson, a senior at Henrico High School, who told us what the day meant for her. “It’s big. She’s not just Ralph Northam’s wife, she’s a successful woman in STEM. I’m going into STEM, and it’s so empowering to see her with Angela Patton, supporting girls of color like myself.”

Cover photo by Branden Wilson. Other photos by Branden Wilson (BW) or Allison MacEwen (AM). 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans

Former Attorney General Eric Holder & Senator Kamala Harris Stump for Democrats in Richmond

|

Topics: , , , , ,

Just over a week remains before the November 7th gubernatorial election and nervous state Democrats have brought in big national names to stump for candidates Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, and incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring. Voter turnout, especially among young voters and people of color, seem to be the chief concern that brought Senator Kamala Harris and former Attorney General Eric Holder to canvass in Hampton Roads before their appearance at an intimate but crowded rally at Blue Bee Cider in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition this afternoon.

Packed House at Blue Bee Cider. Photo by Landon Shroder

Fairfax spoke first, apologizing for Northam’s absence and plugging Jackson Ward’s popular Mama J’s Kitchen where the group ate lunch. “If you go in there, ask them for the Senator Kamala Harris Booth,” he said to a round of applause. He gave an uncharacteristically brief speech before introducing Herring, who is seeking reelection.

Both candidates talked turnout, noting that Northam won almost as many votes in the Democratic primary as all of the GOP candidates combined. Herring used his personal experience as a former candidate to caution against complacency, reminding the crowd that he won by a tiny 907 vote margin following a recount in the 2013 election.

Attorney General Mark Herring. Photo by David Streever

Similar to the Northam rally with President Obama, the big draws were Harris and Holder, but many came out primarily to support the state candidates. Ariana Toussaint, 35, was there for both. “I feel like the trajectory of her career [Harris] is one to watch, and I’m here to support our democrats right now in the general election.”

She was positive about the ticket, but disappointed in the focus on President Trump and national issues. “I hope they’re going to talk more about unity within the group and us moving forward and not getting distracted by certain things coming out of the administration. I think we tend to get distracted and lose sight of the bigger picture, so I hope that’s something that will be brought up today.”

Photo by Allison MacEwen

Sean Gordon, from the Randolph-Macon College Young Democrats, has been watching the race and was excited to meet the national Democrats. “We’re coming here mostly to meet Harris and Holder, but we’re also here to see the energy of the Northam campaign because you kind of have to come to Richmond to see a lot of that.”

He was looking for a little more conflict than Toussaint was, saying he hoped Northam would combat what he called “racial taunting” by Republican candidate Ed Gillespie. “I think he will. That’s what we’re looking for here.”

Harris might have satisfied Gordon, taking the microphone after Herring to talk about the role of Virginia on the national stage. She cast the election as a referendum on the presidency of Trump, describing it as a chance to reject his actions. She and the final speaker, Holder, noted the importance of governors as a counter-weight to the legislative agenda of the Federal government, bringing up universal healthcare, the war on drugs, and the Dreamers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Kamala Harris. Photo by Landon Shroder

Holder made other connections between local and national issues, talking about the Unite the Right march and President Trump’s refusal to condemn the marchers. “You can’t say there were very good people with the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. If you marched with neo-Nazis, you turned in that card.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder. Photo by Landon Shroder

He echoed the theme of voter turnout, one-upping Harris and the others. “Don’t bring five friends to the polls, bring ten. Bring as many as you can. I want to see big margins, I don’t want to see 907 votes again.” It was a big applause line before the candidates exited, pausing for selfies as they pressed through a mob in the rain to the waiting cars.

Regardless of who wins, all eyes are now on Virginia, which has shifted from red to blue and emerged as a crucial battleground state in a deeply divided nation.

*Madelyne Ashworth and Allison MacEwen contributed to this report. 

 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans