With the future uncertain for Gov. Ralph Northam after the discovery of a racist photo on his medical school yearbook page, state lawmakers in the middle of a legislative session head back to the Capitol Monday facing a heavy workload.
The Democratic governor lost the support of the legislature over the weekend after a photo of a person dressed in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe was found on his Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page from 1984.
After initially admitting one of the people in the photo was him, Northam reversed course Saturday during a news conference and said he had never seen the photo before Friday.
The Washington Post reported Northam met with senior staffers Sunday evening and hadn’t reached a final decision on whether he would resign.
State senators and delegates — many of whom have denounced the governor and called for his resignation — are in the middle of the legislature’s 400th session and still have about three weeks of work to get through.
“We don’t have the luxury to give this a lot of attention,” Del. Lamont Bagby, the chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said about the possibility of Northam’s resignation.
The session has been dominated by a disagreement over tax conformity and policy. On Sunday, the money committees from both chambers met to hash out a budget.
Tuesday is crossover day, when hundreds of bills that have passed the Senate go to the House, and vice versa. Each chamber’s budget was due at midnight Sunday, with legislators able to amend each version until Thursday.
Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Bagby said the caucus would conduct business as usual Monday.
He said he hadn’t heard anything more from the governor about a possible resignation.
“But I have not given up hope,” he added.
Calls for Northam’s resignation amplified in the hours following Northam’s Saturday news conference, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Virginia’s only elected African-American governor Douglas Wilder, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson decrying the governor.
“Because of the depth of the offense, as a practical matter and under the avalanche of criticism, it will be virtually impossible for Governor Northam to govern,” Jackson said. “Therefore, it would be wise for him to resign.”
In a joint statement with U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, Virginia’s Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, also called for his resignation Saturday night.
U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, called Northam’s actions “disturbing”, “reprehensible” and going against American values on Sunday morning. While not immediately calling for his resignation, Wittman said Northam needed to do what was best for Virginia.
“We need a leader who is moving us forward, not backward,” he said in a statement. “I am concerned with the impact this is having on our Commonwealth.”
Bagby and House Democratic caucus spokeswoman Kathryn Gilley said as of Sunday afternoon, the caucus had no plans to start formal impeachment procedures.
“We have so much to deal with legislatively,” Gilley said. “We’re really hoping that the legislature can continue fulfilling their legislative duties and not have to take any action on this.”
The day before crossover is typically set aside for passing the remainder of the bills — a few hundred — with little time for floor speeches. The 2019 session lasts just 45 days.
The House and Senate are scheduled to convene in their respective chambers at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., respectively, followed by a handful of committee meetings to work through any last-minute bills that haven’t been pushed through to the full chamber yet.
Hailey Barringer, a spokeswoman for Senate Democrats, said while the situation with Northam is on everyone’s mind, the caucus still has to govern.
“Certainly the calls for resignation will not go away,” she said.
