Jonathan Martin and Alan Blinder

Then, just two hours later, a woman came forward to describe in detail her accusation that Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax had sexually assaulted her in 2004, an accusation he denies.

The back-to-back revelations threw the Capitol here into a state of uncertainty about who would lead Virginia, coming less than one week after the disclosure of a racist photograph on the yearbook page of Gov. Ralph Northam led to demands for his resignation.

The turmoil here has prompted scholars and strategists to scour the Virginia Constitution’s provisions on succession to the governor. Fairfax is next in line, followed by Herring. If all three men were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor.

“That I have contributed to the pain Virginians have felt this week is the greatest shame I have ever felt,” Herring said in a statement, while acknowledging his ability to remain as attorney general was in doubt.

By Herring’s account, he and friends “dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup” for a party, and it was a one-time occurrence.

Although Herring, who attributed his decision to imitate a black person to “ignorance and glib attitudes,” resigned as co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, he left open the question of whether he would stay in his state office.

Herring’s admission came on the same day that Fairfax, the second African-American elected to statewide office in Virginia, confronted an altogether different allegation that, after shadowing him throughout the week, was openly detailed for the first time by his accuser, Vanessa C. Tyson.

Tyson wrote Fairfax “forcefully pushed my head towards his crotch” and forced her to perform oral sex. “I never gave any form of consent,” she said.

Fairfax, in a statement released shortly before Tyson detailed her version of events, described their interaction as “a consensual encounter.” Later in the day, in a more spare and conciliatory statement, he said: “I take this situation very seriously and continue to believe Dr. Tyson should be treated with respect. But I cannot agree to a description of events that simply is not true.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/us/politics/blackface-mark-herring.html" id="99ceec61-df0a-3e2e-a3a3-e0a6c5bc2676">The New York Times</a>.

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to Wearing Blackface

RICHMOND, Va. — The third-ranking elected official in Virginia, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, acknowledged Wednesday he had worn blackface at a party as an undergraduate student, deepening a crisis that has engulfed the state’s Democratic leadership.

The back-to-back revelations threw the Capitol here into a state of uncertainty about who would lead Virginia, coming less than one week after the disclosure of a racist photograph on the yearbook page of Gov. Ralph Northam led to demands for his resignation. Grim-faced legislators rushed through the hallways, shaken by a series of allegations and confessions that threatened to cripple the Virginia government’s three leading officials.

Amid the tumult, Democrats in the Capitol were all but paralyzed in the face of a deeply painful sequence of events that could undermine their hopes of reclaiming the state Legislature, the Republicans’ last remaining foothold of power in Virginia, in the fall. The party has not lost a statewide election here since 2009, and Virginia was the only Southern state President Donald Trump lost in 2016.

National Democrats, who were quick to call for Northam’s resignation last weekend and have generally adopted a zero-tolerance approach to transgressions on race and gender, were mostly silent after Herring’s disclosure and the extraordinary first-person account from Fairfax’s accuser.

Northam, isolated for days and abandoned by the Democratic Party, did not make an appearance or comment onWednesday’s developments. Fairfax, whose ascent to the governor’s office had been widely expected as recently as Saturday, rebutted the assault accusation in a muted tone that reflected his political peril.

Although Northam has withstood calls for his resignation, the turmoil here has prompted scholars and strategists to scour the Virginia Constitution’s provisions on succession to the governor. Fairfax is next in line, followed by Herring. If all three men — Northam, Fairfax and Herring — were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor.

Herring, who had been preparing his own 2021 campaign for governor, perhaps against Fairfax, faced a personal reckoning four days after he called for the governor’s ouster — even as he harbored his own secret involving blackface.

“That I have contributed to the pain Virginians have felt this week is the greatest shame I have ever felt,” Herring said in a statement, while acknowledging that his ability to remain as attorney general was in doubt.

With Virginia’s top three statewide officials facing mortal political threats in the midst of the legislative session and an election year, some senior legislators suggested it was time to stop demanding resignations.

“I feel like I’m living in an episode of a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel where people are rushing to judgment, and it feels like if I don’t proclaim judgment right away, it somehow reflects on me,” said state Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, a northern Virginia Democrat. “I think we need to slow down.”

Referring to the three officials, Petersen added, “I want them all to stay put until we learn more.”

Asked who was in charge of the state, state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, a Democrat, replied, “The governor of Virginia — for now.”

Although speculation about Herring’s history with blackface had coursed through the Capitol this week, it was not until Wednesday morning that he met with the Legislative Black Caucus to inform them. He then issued a statement that described how, as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia in 1980, he had dressed as rapper Kurtis Blow.

By Herring’s account, he and friends “dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup” for a party, and that it was a one-time occurrence. The attorney general, who was elected in 2013 after serving in the General Assembly and in local government in northern Virginia, said that “the shame of that moment has haunted me for decades.”

Black legislators in the Capitol generally saw Herring as an ally on crucial issues. Their Wednesday morning meeting with black lawmakers was “emotional” for everyone present, including the attorney general, said state Sen. Louise Lucas, a Democrat who attended the gathering. She said that the attorney general wiped tears from his cheek and that legislators also cried.

In a statement issued through her lawyers, Tyson, a college professor from California, said she met Fairfax at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. According to Tyson, she accompanied Fairfax when he went to retrieve documents from his hotel room, and he then kissed her. Tyson said she kissed him back, but said she had “no intention of taking my clothes off or engaging in sexual activity.”

Tyson wrote that Fairfax “forcefully pushed my head towards his crotch” and forced her to perform oral sex. “I never gave any form of consent,” she said.

Fairfax, in a statement released shortly before Tyson detailed her version of events, described their interaction as “a consensual encounter” and asserted that she did not “express to me any discomfort or concern.” Later in the day, in a more spare and conciliatory statement, he said: “I take this situation very seriously and continue to believe Dr. Tyson should be treated with respect. But I cannot agree to a description of events that simply is not true.”

Tyson spoke to The Washington Post about her allegation before Fairfax was sworn in as lieutenant governor last year, but the newspaper did not publish her account because it could not be corroborated.

At the time of the initial inquiry by The Post, Fairfax retained the Washington law firm that would go on to represent Brett Kavanaugh when he faced charges of sexual misconduct during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Fairfax, whose aides insisted he would not resign, re-engaged the firm Sunday.

This week, as he faced intensifying questions about his past conduct, Fairfax veered from varying responses; he suggested that allies of Northam and then Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, a political rival, were behind the abrupt airing of the allegation in hopes of blocking his path to the governor’s office.

The issue, though, is one of immense delicacy for Democrats. Since last fall’s hearings for Kavanaugh, they have often said that women who come forward to reveal sexual harassment or assault should be believed.

Some Virginia Democrats, after hearing of Tyson’s account, declined to say if they believed the lieutenant governor should resign.

“Everybody is entitled to have their voices heard,” state Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, said when asked about the allegations.

Wednesday’s sequences of events plainly roiled the state government, which had been on edge in the wake of Northam’s seeming political implosion. The governor has not been seen in public since Sunday, a day after he revealed at a nationally televised news conference that he had once put shoe polish on his cheeks to dress as Michael Jackson at a dance party in 1984. At the same time, he retracted his earlier admission that he was one of the people in a photograph on his yearbook page that showed one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robes.

Fairfax was preparing for the possibility of succeeding Northam, as nearly every major state and national Democrat demanded the governor’s resignation.

At the same time, the stately, neo-Classical Capitol has been transformed into a hub of political intrigue and suspicion. National television crews have been set up in front of the Executive Mansion since Saturday, and state police have offered Fairfax a level of protection that resembles that of a sitting governor.

On Wednesday, legislators expressed open bewilderment as they shared the Capitol’s corridors with dozens of Catholic priests who were lobbying lawmakers against abortion and button-wearing women who visited in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Black legislators walked into the statehouse Wednesday with downcast looks on their faces after Herring disclosed his past behavior to them. The group convened again later Wednesday, and Democratic members of the General Assembly suggested that they would take their cues from their African-American colleagues.

“The black caucus is not shy,” Delegate Lamont Bagby, chairman of the black caucus, said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll speak.”

The state Senate’s top two leaders, who are both white, avoided questions about the turmoil that subsumed a crucial week for lawmakers.

“Nice to see you,” Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., a Republican who is the Senate majority leader, told a reporter as he headed toward a meeting room less than an hour after Herring’s statement.

“It’s a lovely day today,” said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, Democratic leader of the state Senate.

Other legislators similarly deflected questions. One, state Sen. Richard H. Stuart, a Republican who is close to Northam, professed to be focusing on the state budget.

By day’s end, the question of Herring’s fate was arguably the most open-ended. In his statement Wednesday, Herring said imminent “honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether I can or should continue to serve as attorney general.”

Northam has indicated that he intends to remain governor until his term ends in 2022, telling aides that he wants to clear his name, and Fairfax said Wednesday that he anticipated “continuing my work to unify the commonwealth.”

But it seemed no one could speak with much confidence about what lies ahead.

Asked about the state of the government, Delegate Mark L. Keam, a Democrat from Fairfax County, replied with one word: “Uncertain.”

RICHMOND, Va. — The third-ranking elected official in Virginia, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, acknowledged Wednesday that he had worn blackface at a party as an undergraduate student, deepening a crisis that has engulfed the state’s Democratic leadership.

Herring released a statement saying that he dressed like rapper Kurtis Blow, an acknowledgment that instantly deepened a crisis in the state’s Democratic Party. The governor, Ralph Northam, under siege over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook, admitted last week that he once blackened his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. Just two days later, Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, the other one of Virginia’s three statewide officials, faced an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.

“Because of our ignorance and glib attitudes — and because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others — we dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup,” Herring said in a statement Wednesday.

Alluding to the image from Northam’s yearbook that has engulfed the governor in turmoil, Herring added: “That I have contributed to the pain Virginians have felt this week is the greatest shame I have ever felt.” He said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” but did not indicate if he would remain in office.

Herring resigned Wednesday as the co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Just hours after Herring’s statement, Fairfax’s accuser, Vanessa Tyson, went public with her claims that Fairfax had assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

“What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault,” Tyson said in a statement released by a law firm, adding: “Mr. Fairfax forced me to perform oral sex on him. 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.”

Later Wednesday, Fairfax issued another denial, saying in a statement: “Reading Dr. Tyson’s account is painful. I have never done anything like what she suggests.'’

The developments cast Virginia’s government into a state of chaos and cast doubt over who will ultimately be leading the state: “The governor of Virginia — for now,” said state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, referring to Northam.

Northam has not been seen in public since Sunday, a day after he revealed he had once worn shoe polish to dress as Michael Jackson at a dance party. At the same time, he retracted his earlier admission that he had participated in the yearbook photograph, which showed one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe.

And Fairfax, after issuing a statement at nearly 3 a.m. Monday vehemently denying the sexual assault claims, has suggested Northam or Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond were behind the initial leak of the woman’s claims — creating an extraordinary state of tumult surrounding the state’s leadership.

Nearly every major state and national Democrat has called on Northam to resign, and Virginia Democrats are nervously waiting for more details regarding the accusations against Fairfax, having so far only issued spare statements about how women’s claims should be taken seriously.

Herring is second in line to become governor after Fairfax. If all three men — Northam, Fairfax and Herring — were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor.

“In the days ahead, honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether I can or should continue to serve as attorney general,” Herring said, “but no matter where we go from here, I will say that from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain that I cause with this revelation.”

Herring, a former state legislator who was elected attorney general in 2013, is from northern Virginia, where he was a local official before entering state-level politics. He narrowly defeated Fairfax in a Democratic primary in 2013.

Herring first disclosed his behavior in a private meeting Wednesday morning with this state’s legislative black caucus. Afterward, black legislators walked into the Capitol on Wednesday with downcast looks on their faces and avoided questions about their meeting with Herring.

Delegate Lamont Bagby, chairman of the black caucus, confirmed the session but would not comment about what the attorney general said. “He’ll talk about it,” said Bagby.

Bagby declined to answer further questions, and another delegate, Eileen Filler-Corn, the Democratic House leader, pulled him away from a reporter and into a private room.

“I’m not going to talk about what happened at the meeting this morning,” said Delegate Jay Jones, visibly shaken, before he was hustled away by an aide.

Just minutes before Herring issued his statement, Fairfax issued his own statement, at around the same time NBC reported that he had used profane language about his accuser at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting.

Asked if Fairfax had referred to the woman with an expletive, Larry Roberts, chief of staff to Fairfax who attended the meeting, said the lieutenant governor had used a profanity to describe the situation and his level of anger but had not referred to the woman with the expletive reported by NBC.

“This has been an emotional couple of days for me and my family,” Fairfax said, emphasizing “how important it is for us to listen to women when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault.”

It just was four days ago that the attorney general had demanded Northam resign over the governor’s own admission that he once wore blackface.

“It is no longer possible for Gov. Northam to lead our Commonwealth, and it is time for him to step down,” Herring said Saturday, the day of Northam’s nationally televised news conference. “I have spoken with Lt. Gov. Fairfax and assured him that, should he ascend to the governorship, he will have my complete support and commitment to ensuring his success and the success of our Commonwealth.”

The scene in the Capitol was surreal Wednesday morning, as dozens of Catholic priests here to lobby against abortion and women in support of the Equal Rights Amendment walked hallways that were buzzing with rumor about the latest extraordinary news.

Approached by a reporter as he walked toward the state Senate chamber, Fairfax would only say: “God is good.”

Just after 11 a.m., Bagby emerged from the chamber and acknowledged the meeting between Herring and the caucus. A half-hour later, Herring acknowledged what had been rumored here since Tuesday: He, too, had put makeup on his face for a party in the 1980s.

The state Senate’s top two leaders, who are both white, avoided questions.

“It’s a lovely day today,” Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, the Democratic leader, who was walking with Norment.

Delegate Mark L. Keam, a Democrat from northern Virginia, said lawmakers were stunned and did not know who would lead the state.

“Uncertain,” said Keam when asked about the mood here.

Bagby suggested Democrats would take their cues from their African-American colleagues.

“The black caucus is not shy,” Bagby said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll speak.”

Herring’s admission came on the sixth day of a spiraling political crisis in Virginia, where the past personal conduct of the governor, the lieutenant governor and, now, the attorney general, have all come under withering scrutiny. National television crews have been set up in front of the Executive Mansion since Saturday, and state police have begun protecting Fairfax.

The head-spinning sequence of events began Friday, when the racist photograph in Northam’s 1984 yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School was published online. Northam swiftly apologized for “the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo,” but he did not say whether he had been the person dressed in blackface or the one dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe.

The next afternoon, at a 42-minute news conference in the Executive Mansion, Northam publicly reversed course and asserted that he had not, in fact, been in the photograph and that he would resist demands for his resignation. But he also compounded political difficulties by admitting to participating in the Michael Jackson-themed party and momentarily considering showing off his “moonwalk.”

While Northam aimed to survive his own political uproar, Fairfax faced his own peril. The sexual assault accusations against him surfaced Sunday night on a right-wing website — the same website that had revealed the picture in Northam’s yearbook — and The Washington Post reported Monday that it had investigated the allegation last year, shortly before Fairfax was inaugurated.

The newspaper said it did not originally publish the account because it could not be corroborated, but it detailed the charges Monday.

RICHMOND, Va. — Attorney General Mark R. Herring of Virginia acknowledged Wednesday that he put on blackface and wore a wig while an undergraduate of the University of Virginia in 1980, becoming the second statewide official here in the last week to admit to imitating an African-American person and sending an already-stunned Capitol reeling.

Herring released a statement saying he dressed like rapper Kurtis Blow, an acknowledgment that instantly deepened a crisis in the state’s Democratic Party. The governor, Ralph Northam, under siege over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook, admitted last week he once blackened his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. Just two days later, Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, the other one of Virginia’s three statewide officials, faced an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.

Herring said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” but did not indicate if he would remain in office. He resigned Wednesday as the co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

Nearly every major state and national Democrat has called on Northam to resign. Herring is second in line to become governor after Fairfax. If all three men were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor.

Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Blackface

RICHMOND, Va. — Attorney General Mark R. Herring of Virginia acknowledged Wednesday he put on blackface and wore a wig while an undergraduate of the University of Virginia in 1980, becoming the second statewide official here in the last week to admit to imitating an African-American person.

“This has been an emotional couple of days for me and my family,” Fairfax said, emphasizing “how important it is for us to listen to woman when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault.”

Dazed lawmakers arriving here for their legislative session said they did not know how much longer Northam would be governor or whether Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would replace him amid the growing tensions between the state’s two top leaders, both Democrats.

“Everybody is shaking their heads, nobody knows what’s going to happen,” said state Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat who ran for governor a decade ago. “It might change in 15 minutes.”

The cascade of events began Monday morning when Northam met first with his Cabinet and then with his staff, some of whom have urged him to quit over questions about a racist photograph that appeared on his medical school yearbook page.

Northam told his Cabinet members that he wanted time to clear his name and would remain in office for now, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting. And the governor’s chief of staff told other aides that they owed it to Northam to remain with him, at least for the moment, according to second Democrat briefed on the conversation. Still, Northam was bracing for resignations from his Cabinet, which his advisers expected to come before the end of the week.

But a state that prides itself on its decorum was thrown into further chaos when Fairfax emphatically denied a woman’s claim that he had sexually assaulted her in 2004, and indicated that Northam’s allies were plotting against him to keep him from assuming the governor’s post if Northam resigned.

“Does anybody think it’s any coincidence that on the eve of potentially my being elevated that that’s when this uncorroborated smear comes out?” Fairfax told a group of reporters surrounding him in the rotunda of the state Capitol on Monday afternoon, when asked whether Northam was responsible for the accusations becoming public.

Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol on Monday evening, Fairfax adjusted his stance slightly, saying he had “no indication” that Northam himself was behind the publication of the sexual assault allegations but still decrying the “sneaky” tactics that he said were being employed against him. Then Fairfax shifted targets and hinted that Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, a would-be rival to the lieutenant governor for the 2021 Democratic nomination for governor, may have played a role — praising the acumen of a reporter who inquired whether Stoney might have been responsible.

Asked if he had any involvement in leaking the claims of assault, which first surfaced Sunday night on a right-wing website, Stoney said, “The insinuation is 100 percent not true, and frankly it’s offensive.”

Addressing the allegations, which The Washington Post also published Monday morning, Fairfax said he only had what he called “a 100 percent consensual” sexual encounter with the woman at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. In a private meeting with Senate Democrats on Monday morning, Fairfax voiced the same categorical denials about the assault claims, according to a lawmaker present for the gathering.

Neither Fairfax nor the Post named the woman. The Post said it was unable to corroborate the woman’s allegations when she presented them, and did not run a story. The Post, however, disputed a statement by Fairfax saying that the newspaper had found inconsistencies and red flags in the woman’s allegation; the newspaper labeled those assertions as incorrect.

The New York Times has reached out to intermediaries for the woman, but they did not immediately comment Monday.

Asked if Northam was behind the story, an adviser to the embattled governor denied any responsibility, saying they did not have the capacity to hatch such scheme when they are barely clinging to power.

On the question of whether he believes the governor should resign, Fairfax noted that he is in “a unique position” and wanted to remain “circumspect” about the matter.

The day’s swirling events left both politicians bruised at a time when Democrats in Virginia were trying to end the crisis and restore calm to their ranks.

Even as Northam dug in, his onetime allies in the state and national Democratic Party intensified their pleas that he quit, angry and embarrassed at the prospect of being saddled with a governor suddenly compromised by his past. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday renewed her call for him to step down, stating that Northam had “admitted to enough involvement with racial stereotypes that he’s disqualified himself as governor.'’

Northam first came under fire Friday when a photograph was published online showing people dressed in blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes on his 1984 yearbook page from Eastern Virginia Medical School. After initially acknowledging that it was him in the photograph and apologizing, the governor reversed course Saturday and said he was sure it was not him.

But he undermined his chances for survival by also acknowledging that in the same year he had used shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson costume at a dance party.

The disclosure of the yearbook photo has also shaken Northam’s alma mater. The college’s provost, Richard V. Homan, has hired a law firm to investigate how it was that offensive pictures came to be published in past yearbooks, and has formed community advisory group to examine the campus’ culture.

“We need to get the best information we can as to what happened, how it was able to happen, so we can make sure we don’t allow those circumstances to exist in the future,” said Vincent Rhodes, the school’s chief communications officer.

While Northam told his aides he wanted to act deliberately at an unprecedented moment in the state’s history, his dwindling circle of advisers scrambled to locate the governor’s classmates in an effort to prove he was not one of the men in the now-notorious image.

Northam was flanked by his longtime chief of staff, Clark Mercer, and spokeswoman, Ofirah Yheskel. He also summoned aides from his 2017 campaign, an election that marked the Democrats’ first major victory in the Trump era.

Across Capitol Square on an unusually warm winter day, shellshocked state legislators did not quite know what to say as they navigated around a phalanx of national television crews.

Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates who has called on the governor to quit, said he did not want to pursue impeachment against Northam and it was uncertain if the crisis met the threshold for removing him from office.

But the governor, already cast out by Virginia’s political leaders, was fast becoming a pariah outside Richmond, too.

And the fallout began to spread beyond the political realm, as the governor and William &amp; Mary University agreed that he would not attend the formal inauguration of its president Friday. “That behavior has no place in civil society — not 35 years ago, not today,” said Katherine Rowe, president of the university, Virginia’s oldest institution of higher learning.

The day’s chaotic tone was set at 2:55 a.m. Monday, when aides to Fairfax — a Democrat widely seen as a rising star in the party — put out a statement saying the sexual assault allegation was “false” and that Fairfax had “never assaulted anyone — ever — in any way, shape or form.” The aides said Fairfax is considering “appropriate legal action against those attempting to spread this defamatory and false allegation.”

Fairfax’s aides said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article.

According to a Post story Monday, the woman contacted the newspaper after Fairfax won election in November 2017 and alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in 2004.

The Post had been unable to corroborate her allegations, which Fairfax had denied at the time, according to the story.

Lawmakers in Richmond insisted that, despite the tumult, they were trying to work as normal. This week is among the most crucial for the General Assembly, because Tuesday is “crossover day,” the moment on the legislative calendar when the two chambers swap their passed bills.

And as sunset neared on the Jefferson-designed Capitol, the House of Delegates was in session, considering a bill about embryos and assisted conception as its members sat quietly in their seats. One was wrapped in a blanket.

“I’m just sort of focusing what we’re working on,” said Alfonso H. Lopez, a Northern Virginia legislator who is the House’s Democratic whip.

But when they stepped away from their desks, the lawmakers could not help but express their fears about the implications of Northam remaining in office.

By Monday evening the governor had spent more than three long nights in deepening political isolation, abandoned by Democrats who quickly came to see his diminished standing as a burden on two fronts: their policy agenda, including matters like teacher pay and tax policy, and their efforts to capture control of the House of Delegates and the Senate this year.

Both chambers are within reach for the party, which has made gains throughout the state in recent years.

“It would be very burdensome for us in this election year to have a governor who’s being protested at every stop,” said Mark Sickles, a Democratic legislator from Northern Virginia.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/us/politics/northam-photo.html" id="3b368ebf-7ae6-3790-aefe-c9e0afbcc2f0">The New York Times</a>.

Virginia Capitol Thrown Into Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia plunged deeper into political turmoil Monday as Gov. Ralph Northam told aides he was not planning to step down, and his own lieutenant governor suggested Northam’s supporters were behind an effort to smear him with claims of sexual assault to block his ascent if the governor resigned.

But even after meeting Sunday night with a group of his African-American aides, most of whom told him the only way he could clear his name would be to quit, Northam was giving no indication that he intended to step down.

As Northam dug in, his onetime allies in the state and national Democratic Party intensified their pleas that he quit, angry and embarrassed at the prospect of being saddled with a governor suddenly compromised by his past. While denying he posed in the racist costumes depicted in his 1984 yearbook — after initially acknowledging it — Northam admitted Saturday that in the same year he had used shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson-themed costume at a dance party.

Stunned state legislators arrived Monday for their weekly session uncertain who would be governor by the end of the day. Swarmed by reporters, Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates who has called on the governor to quit, said that he did not want to pursue impeachment against Northam and that it was uncertain if the matter met the threshold for impeaching him.

Cox’s remarks heartened Northam’s advisers, who said Monday that the governor is intent on remaining in office and attempting to somehow prove that he was not in the photograph.

But the governor, already isolated from Virginia’s political leaders, was fast becoming a pariah outside Richmond, too, after a wave of top Democratic leaders, including most of the contenders for the 2020 presidential nomination, called on him to resign.

And the turmoil enveloping the state only grew when, at 2:55 a.m. Monday, aides to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would succeed Northam were he to resign, issued an extraordinary statement denying an online report that the lieutenant governor had once committed sexual assault.

“He has never assaulted anyone — ever — in any way, shape or form,” said two of Fairfax’s top staff members. They were responding to an accusation published late Sunday that in 2004 he sexually assaulted a woman while at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Fairfax’s aides — his chief of staff, Lawrence Roberts, and his communications director, Lauren Burke — said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article. The Post published a story Monday explaining its decision.

The fallout from the revelations about Northam spread beyond the political realm, as the governor and William &amp; Mary agreed that he would not attend the formal inauguration of its president Friday.

“That behavior has no place in civil society — not 35 years ago, not today,” said Katherine Rowe, president of the university, Virginia’s oldest institution of higher learning. “It has become clear,'’ she added, “that the governor’s presence would fundamentally disrupt the sense of campus unity we aspire to and hope for with this event.'’

By Monday morning, Northam had spent more than 60 hours in deepening political isolation, abandoned by Democrats who quickly came to see his diminished standing as a burden on two fronts: their policy agenda, including matters like teacher pay and tax policy, and their efforts to capture control of the House of Delegates and the Senate this year. Both chambers are within reach for the party, which has made gains throughout the state in recent years.

“It has created a dark cloud,” said Mark L. Keam, a legislator from Northern Virginia who was among the Democrats afraid of a loss of leverage as long as Northam remained the titular head of the party in Virginia.

“Right now,” he added Sunday, “the issue that we must resolve is how the governor presides over the current Legislature.”

This week is among the most crucial for the General Assembly, which faces an all-important deadline for bills to advance.

Northam, who attended his longtime church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Sunday morning, has commented publicly just three times since the photograph emerged online Friday. He first issued a statement Friday, when he said he was “deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now” and indicated that he would seek to serve out his term, set to expire in 2022. A video message released a short time later reiterated the governor’s position.

But Saturday, Northam stunned Richmond when he reversed course and said he had concluded that he was not, in fact, in the photograph on his yearbook page.

“It was definitely not me,” Northam said at a news conference. “I can tell by looking at it.”

Northam’s shift did little, if anything, to stanch the calls for his resignation; some Democrats believe it lent them even greater credence and urgency.

“If it wasn’t him in the photo, he should have said that on Friday,” former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Northam’s Democratic predecessor, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I have no idea what was going on in the governor’s office on Friday.”

Some Democrats, like McAuliffe, have maintained their belief that Northam would resign and stanch speculation about whether other state officials might try to remove him through impeachment or the Virginia Constitution’s version of the 25th Amendment.

And even as he battled for his job, Northam himself suggested Saturday that the time could come for him to step aside. Asked at one point about his relationship with Fairfax, the governor described how the lieutenant governor was “very supportive, and he will continue to be supportive.”

But then he mentioned how electing someone to be lieutenant governor was, on the part of voters, an act of faith that the victor would be ready to assume the state’s top office, if necessary.

“He’ll be ready to do that,” Northam said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/us/politics/ralph-northam-governor-virginia.html" id="64af23a2-80f7-341d-a85e-24c0dd8c6c92">The New York Times</a>.

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, abandoned by allies in the Democratic Party and besieged by demands that he resign, met with his Cabinet on Monday morning as state legislators returned to a Capitol thrown into chaos by the governor’s insistence on staying in office despite revelations that a photograph showing people in blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes was displayed on his medical school yearbook page.

Stunned state legislators arrived Monday for their weekly session uncertain who would be governor by the end of the day. Swarmed by reporters, Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates who has called on the governor to quit, said he did not want to pursue impeachment against Northam and that it was uncertain if the matter met the threshold for impeaching him.

Cox’s remarks heartened Northam’s advisers, who said Monday the governor is intent on remaining in office and attempting to somehow prove that he was not in the photograph.

Fairfax’s aides said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article. The Post published a story Monday explaining its decision.

As Northam dug in, his onetime allies in the state and national Democratic Party intensified their pleas that he quit, angry and embarrassed at the prospect of being saddled with a governor suddenly compromised by his past. While denying he posed in the racist costumes depicted in his 1984 medical school yearbook — after initially acknowledging it — Northam admitted Saturday that in the same year he had used shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson-themed costume at a dance party.

Fairfax’s aides said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article. The Post did not immediately have a comment.

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, abandoned by allies in the Democratic Party and besieged by demands that he resign, met with his Cabinet on Monday morning as state legislators returned to a Capitol thrown into chaos by the governor’s insistence on staying in office despite revelations that he may have appeared in blackface or in Ku Klux Klan robes in a yearbook photo.

Virginia Capitol in Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Fairfax’s aides — his chief of staff, Lawrence Roberts, and his communications director, Lauren Burke — said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article. The Post did not immediately have a comment.

The fallout from the revelations about Northam spread beyond the political realm, too, as William &amp; Mary rescinded its invitation to him to attend its inauguration of a new university president Friday.

“That behavior has no place in civil society — not 35 years ago, not today,” said Katherine Rowe, the incoming president of the university, Virginia’s oldest institution of higher learning.

Northam, who attended his longtime church in Cape Charles on Sunday morning, has commented publicly just three times since the photograph emerged online Friday. He first issued a statement Friday, when he said he was “deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now” and indicated that he would seek to serve out his term, set to expire in 2022. A video message released a short time later reiterated the governor’s position.

But on Saturday, Northam stunned Richmond when he reversed course and said he had concluded that he was not, in fact, in the photograph on his yearbook page.

And even as he battled for his job, Northam himself suggested on Saturday that the time could come for him to step aside. Asked at one point about his relationship with Fairfax, the governor described about how the lieutenant governor was “very supportive, and he will continue to be supportive.”

<h1>RICHMOND, Va. — The third-ranking elected official in Virginia, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, acknowledged Wednesday that he had worn blackface at a party as an undergraduate student, deepening a crisis that has engulfed the state’s Democratic leadership.</h1>

Northam, isolated for days and abandoned by the Democratic Party, did not make an appearance or comment on Wednesday’s developments. Fairfax, whose ascent to the governor’s office had been widely expected as recently as Saturday, rebutted the assault accusation in a muted tone that reflected his political peril.

Although Northam has so far withstood calls for his resignation, the turmoil here has prompted scholars and strategists to scour the Virginia Constitution’s provisions on succession to the governor. Fairfax is next in line, followed by Herring. If all three men — Northam, Fairfax and Herring — were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor.

Herring, 57, who had been preparing his own 2021 campaign for governor, perhaps against Fairfax, faced a personal reckoning four days after he called for the governor’s ouster — even as he harbored his own secret involving blackface.

In a statement issued through her lawyers, Tyson, 42, a college professor from California, said she met Fairfax at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. According to Tyson, she accompanied Fairfax when he went to retrieve documents from his hotel room, and he then kissed her. Tyson said she kissed him back, but said she had “no intention of taking my clothes off or engaging in sexual activity.”

Fairfax, 39, in a statement released shortly before Tyson detailed her version of events, described their interaction as “a consensual encounter” and asserted that she did not “express to me any discomfort or concern.” Later in the day, in a more spare and conciliatory statement, he said: “I take this situation very seriously and continue to believe Dr. Tyson should be treated with respect. But I cannot agree to a description of events that simply is not true.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="e46bed15-8118-45a9-9edc-fd68333900e3" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/us/politics/blackface-mark-herring.html">The New York Times</a>.

Then, just two hours later, a woman came forward to describe in detail her accusation that Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax had sexually assaulted her in 2004, an accusation he denies.

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to wearing blackface

<h1>RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia plunged deeper into political turmoil Monday as Gov. Ralph Northam told aides he was not planning to step down, and his own lieutenant governor suggested Northam’s supporters were behind an effort to smear him with claims of sexual assault to block his ascent if the governor resigned.</h1>

“Everybody is shaking their heads, nobody knows what’s going to happen,” said state Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat.

The cascade of events began Monday morning when Northam met with his Cabinet and then with his staff, some of whom have urged him to quit over questions about a racist photograph that appeared on his medical school yearbook page.

Northam told his Cabinet members that he wanted time to clear his name and would remain in office for now, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting.

“Does anybody think it’s any coincidence that on the eve of potentially my being elevated that that’s when this uncorroborated smear comes out?” Fairfax told a group of reporters Monday afternoon, when asked whether Northam was responsible for the accusations becoming public.

Speaking to reporters Monday evening, Fairfax adjusted his stance slightly, saying he had “no indication” that Northam himself was behind the publication of the sexual assault allegations.

This article originally appeared in <a id="71aedaf7-8041-498e-81bb-3e4461a309f5" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/us/politics/northam-photo.html">The New York Times</a>.

Dazed lawmakers arriving here for their legislative session said they did not know how much longer Northam would be governor or whether Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would replace him amid the growing tensions between the state’s two top leaders, both Democrats.

Jonathan Martin and Alan Blinder

Articles written by the author

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to Wearing Blackface

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to Wearing Blackface

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to Wearing Blackface

Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Blackface

Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Blackface

Virginia Capitol Thrown Into Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Virginia Capitol Thrown Into Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Virginia Capitol Thrown Into Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Virginia Capitol Thrown Into Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Virginia Capitol in Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Virginia Capitol in Chaos as Pressure on Northam Intensifies

Crisis Spirals in Virginia as Attorney General Admits to wearing blackface

Virginia Capitol thrown into chaos as pressure on Northam intensifies