Tag: Jennifer McClellan

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In brief: Carter joins race, Dewberry gets sued, and more

Northern Virginia Delegate Lee Carter announced his gubernatorial candidacy on New Year’s Day. PC: Supplied photo

Jump in

The 2021 race for the governor’s mansion in Virginia got a little more complicated last week, when northern Virginia Delegate Lee Carter declared his candidacy for the office.

In his campaign announcement, Carter emphasized economic stratification as the driving force of discontent in the commonwealth. “[Virginia] is not divided between red and blue. It’s not divided between big cities and small towns. Virginia is divided between the haves and the have-nots,” he said.

Carter identifies as a democratic socialist and was a Virginia co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. He made headlines last year when he spearheaded a bill to cap insulin prices at $50 per month. With the 2021 General Assembly session approaching, Carter has already introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty.

Outside the halls of the state capital, the former Marine and electronic repairman has been active on social media. He’s got more than 100,000 followers on Twitter (six times as many as House Majority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn), and just before his 2018 election he made headlines after tweeting out a memorable self-initiated “oppo dump,” sharing that he was “on divorce number 3” and that “just like everyone else under 35, I’m sure explicit images or video of me exists out there somewhere,” though “unlike Anthony Weiner, I never sent them unsolicited.”

Carter joins former governor Terry McAuliffe, current lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, state senator Jennifer McClellan, and state delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy in a crowded Democratic field.

McAuliffe, a career Democratic Party insider, announced record-breaking fundraising numbers this week—“the Macker” raised $6.1 million as of December 31. The rest of the candidates will share updates as a campaign finance filing deadline approaches in the coming weeks, but The Washington Post reports that McAuliffe’s haul surpasses any previous total from a candidate at this point in the race.

Spending hasn’t always translated to victories for McAuliffe, however. In his first run for governor in 2009, he outspent primary opponent and then-state delegate Creigh Deeds $8.2 million to $3.4 million, but wound up losing to Deeds by more than 20 percent. In 2013, McAuliffe beat Ken Cuccinelli in the general election, outspending him $38 million to $20.9 million.

The Democratic primary will be held on June 8.

PC: Supplied and file photos

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Quote of the week

“He said that in his many years of doing executive searches, he had never seen a level of dysfunction as profound as what he was seeing here.“

—City Councilor Lloyd Snook, in a Facebook post, relaying the comments of the firm retained to find a new city manager

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In brief

State senator killed by COVID

Virginia state senator Ben Chafin passed away last Friday at age 60 after contracting coronavirus. The southwestern Virginia Republican served in the legislature for six years, and was one of four GOP state senators to break rank and vote in favor of Medicaid expansion in 2018. Governor Ralph Northam ordered state flags lowered in Chafin’s honor over the weekend.

You Dew you

The steel and concrete husk of a skyscraper that’s been languishing on the Downtown Mall for more than a decade is now facing further legal trouble, reports The Daily Progress. Last year, the Dewberry Group, which owns the building, changed the building’s name from the Laramore to Dewberry Living—but the Dewberry Living name violated a trademark agreement between the Dewberry Group and a northern Virginia firm called Dewberry Engineers, Inc. Now, Dewberry Engineers is suing the Dewberry Group for copyright infringement. The building itself remains empty.

The Dewberry Living building continues to stir up legal drama. PC: Ashley Twiggs

Eyes on the road

As of January 1, it is illegal for drivers in Virginia to hold a phone while operating a vehicle. If you’re caught gabbing while driving, or skipping that one terrible song, you’ll be subject to a $125 fine for a first offense and a $250 fine for a second offense. Opponents of the law are concerned that it will open the door for more racial profiling by law enforcement, while the law’s backers cite the dangers of distracted driving.

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Running for governor: Jennifer McClellan wants to hear your perspective

Jennifer McClellan, long seen as a rising star in Virginia politics, is running for governor in 2021.

In June, State Senator Jennifer McClellan announced her candidacy for governor of Virginia.

McClellan is a 14-year veteran of the Virginia legislature who grew up in Petersburg. In this year’s session, she was a sponsor of significant clean energy and abortion access bills, as well as Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. If elected in 2021, she would be the first Black woman governor in the United States.

McClellan spent three years in Charlottesville at UVA law school, and she’s earned endorsements from local leaders including Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley and Jefferson School African American History Center Director Andrea Douglas. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 

C-VILLE: At every level of politics, there’s been conversation about the range of views within the Democratic Party. Where would you place yourself along the progressive-moderate spectrum?

JM: I would say I’m a pragmatic progressive. I have progressive values and I push for progressive policy, but if I cannot get 100 percent of what I want when I want it, I always ask myself, “Is this better than the status quo? Is this a good start to keep pushing?” And act accordingly.

 

This session, you were a patron of the bill that Charlottesville was watching more closely than anything—the bill allowing localities to move Confederate monuments. Why was that legislation important to you?

As a Black woman who had ancestors who were enslaved, I fully understand our history as a people and our history as a commonwealth, but I also understand the history of when these monuments were put up and why.

Those monuments trigger a lot of trauma and pain for me, and Black people, and we needed to be honest about that. Many of them are put in public spaces like courthouses. They were put there intentionally, to basically say, “life, liberty, and justice for all doesn’t mean you.” That was the message.

I live not too far from the Lee monument. I drive past it every day. I never realized how much emotional energy I spent ignoring it, because of all the trauma that it triggered, until I heard the words that it was coming down. This is going to sound clichéd—but the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards justice, and it bent a little more the day those things came down.

 

You’ve been around Virginia politics for years, seen as a rising star for years. Why did you decide to run for governor this cycle?

I’ve made a lot of progress addressing inequity and trying to make Virginia government one that works for progressive change. But at the end of the day, the governor sets the agenda, and you can make that kind of progress more broadly as governor.

I’m fighting the same fights as my parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents. I can’t look at my kids and say, “I did everything within my power to keep you from having to fight these fights”—unless I run for governor.

…My number one priority is building a world-class public education system, from early childhood to career, that doesn’t leave any child behind. That includes completely restructuring how we fund it. That’s going to require me to write the budget. That’s going to require me to appoint the Board of Education and the secretary of education and the superintendent of schools. That’s going to require a commitment from the top.

 

For most of your career, as Democrat, you’ve served in the minority of the legislature. If you become governor, there’s a good chance you’d be working alongside a Democrat-controlled legislature. You’ve talked a lot about bipartisanship as one of your skills. Is bipartisanship still important in a situation like that? 

It is. I’d be the governor for the entire commonwealth, not just Democrats. On most issues that we deal with, there’s not a lot that separates Democrats or Republicans. Most of the legislation that we pass is either unanimous or near unanimous. We all want a good job, we all want a good education and opportunity for our kids, and we want to live in clean healthy neighborhoods. 

We have very different perspectives of how to get there…But when you listen to someone else’s perspective, and try to understand where they’re coming from, you will find common ground. You may hear a perspective you hadn’t thought about. We’re a government by, of, and for the people—that means my perspective isn’t always right.

 

I admire that open attitude, but is it ever difficult to square that with the actions of Republicans in the legislature? I mean, 40 Republican delegates voted against the Equal Rights Amendment this year. 

Yes! Yes. I have—there are fewer of them—but I have very close friends who are Republicans in the legislature. Sometimes it would just pain me to hear the things they would say. 

But if I understand where they’re coming from, I know where can I move them, and where I can’t…At the end of the day, if I can’t move them, then it’s up to the people to move them. But if I want to move them, I have to meet them where they are, and pull them along.

 

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In brief: Protestors push on, police donors exposed, victims speak out, and more

Activists stand outside the police station during a protest this weekend. PC: Eze Amos

Tenure trouble

UVA’s “Great and Good” strategic plan lists “recruiting and retaining excellent and diverse faculty” as a central goal. But this year, two black scholars who have been denied tenure claim the decision process was significantly flawed, possibly due to racial bias.

Paul Harris PC: Virginia.edu

Paul Harris has worked at UVA’s Curry School of Education since 2011, studying identity development in black male student-athletes and underrepresented students’ college readiness. For the past six years, Harris’ annual reviews indicated that he was meeting or exceeding expectations. So he was shocked to learn in January that an all-white, college-wide promotion and tenure committee had recommended against giving him tenure. Instead, he was offered a promotion—for a non-tenure-track position.

Harris says the committee claimed his research in the Journal of African American Males in Education in 2016 was “self-published.” (In fact, the peer-reviewed journal has a 23 percent acceptance rate.) The committee also got his citation counts wrong—they’re five times higher than the committee claimed.

Tolu Odumosu PC: Virginia.edu

Sociologist Tolu Odumosu has been on the tenure track at UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science since 2013. He’s co-written and co-edited two books, and helped write a $3 million National Science Foundation grant. After his third-year review suggested he expand his editing experience, he also became an associate editor of two journals.

But the engineering school’s tenure committee did not grant him tenure this year. It claimed that Odumosu hadn’t written enough work by himself, and was not the principal investigator named on the NSF grant. Like Harris, Odumosu had not been warned that his work was not up to par.

Both men appealed the decisions to UVA’s provost, but the appeals were rejected. The scholars are now appealing to the Faculty Senate’s grievance committee—their last option.

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Quote of the week

“This is a moment to step boldly into our future…We have to work together to decide what kind of Virginia we’re going to be. I’m ready for the challenge.”

—State Senator Jennifer McClellan, announcing her campaign for Virginia governor

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In brief

Still on the march

Charlottesville activists continue to mobilize the community to protest police brutality. Large marches and demonstrations have taken place in town at least once a week since the death of George Floyd in late May. Last weekend, protesters marching downtown also directed some of their energy toward patrons of the mall’s outdoor restaurants: The demonstrators chanted “Shame” at diners who were sipping beer and chewing on burgers.

Convention contagion?

Denver Riggleman’s campaign claims that several delegates who participated in the recent drive-thru Republican convention have contracted coronavirus, reports CBS19. The local Republican Party denies the accusation. Riggleman continues to criticize the drive-thru convention format that saw him lose the congressional nomination to challenger Bob Good. “Voter fraud has been a hallmark of this process,” Riggleman tweeted on election night.

Donor debate

Community members have noticed that the Charlottesville Police Foundation—dedicated to fundraising for the “advanced training, new technologies and equipment, [and] housing assistance” that isn’t covered by the department’s $18 million budget—posted a list of donors on its website. The list featured several local restaurants and other businesses, as well as individuals, including City Council members Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill.

Heather Hill PC: Eze Amos

Exposing abuse

Tweets about allegations of sexual assault and harassment directed at dozens of UVA students and staff appeared on an anonymous Twitter account last week. The alleged incidents once again drew attention to students’ calls for reform—in April, student advocacy group UVA Survivors created a list of demands for institutional change in sexual assault policy, reports The Cavalier Daily. The list has garnered around 1,700 new signatures in the past week.

Lloyd Snook PC: Supplied

 

Immigration action

UVA will now allow students to enroll and graduate “regardless of citizenship or immigration status,” the university announced last week. Previously, only DACA recipients—not other “undocu+” students—had not been allowed to matriculate. The decision represents a long-sought victory for activists around the school community.

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‘Poetic justice:’ First black UVA student celebrated

Gregory Swanson’s lawsuit against UVA’s rector and Board of Visitors in 1950 helped pave the way for Brown v. Board of Education, which eventually declared laws requiring blacks and whites to attend separate schools unconstitutional. Courtesy of Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library/University of Virginia

In the midst of a national controversy surrounding racial inequality and civil rights, members of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association unveiled a 150-pound bronze marker July 12 to commemorate the first African-American student ever admitted to the University of Virginia.

When Danville native Gregory Hayes Swanson, a 26-year-old practicing lawyer, applied for admission to UVA’s School of Law in 1949, faculty voted unanimously to admit him, though the university was white-only. On the advice of the state attorney general, the school’s Board of Visitors then denied Swanson’s acceptance.

Swanson and his legal team—comprised of well-known NAACP members Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill—filed suit against the university’s rector and BOV. His case was heard and a judge ruled in Swanson’s favor on September 5, 1950, in the very room where bar association members hung the plaque in his honor. While it is now called the McIntire Room in the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, then it was home to the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

McIntire Plack
The plaque commemorating Gregory Swanson was unveiled by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association July 12. Staff photo

The nearly $3,000 plaque was made possible by the dues of 417 bar association members. Charlottesville public defender Jim Hingeley, who spearheaded the commemoration project, said at the unveiling that he remembered practicing law in that very room in the late 1970s when he first started practicing law. The marker, he said, now hangs on the wall behind the podium in which the judge’s bench once sat.

“I don’t think commemoration is only celebration,” said Risa Goluboff at the event, who had been dean of the university’s law school for just 12 days. “There’s something more sober.”

Though she said she feels proud to be a part of the school that broke the color barrier at UVA, she added that it is also important to acknowledge regret and “a past that isn’t always comfortable” when commemorating history.

Charlottesville has been doing a lot of that lately.

In March, Mayor Mike Signer called for a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Places after a massive controversy was sparked by Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who called for the removal of the General Robert E. Lee statue from Lee Park. The commission’s objective is to recommend to City Council how to approach those topics, including Confederate memorials.

“One of the really exciting things about that plaque in the library is that it’s uncovering history that a lot of people don’t know,” says City Councilor Kristin Szakos, who also supports removing the Lee statue. “I hate to compare [the plaque] to other monuments because there’s plenty of history to go around, but I will say that the big statue monuments that we have in town are not about local history. They’re more about ideas, whereas this is really about something that happened right here.”

Lewis Martin was the bar president the majority of the year that the commemoration project was underway, and he says recognizing important historical figures can bring a community together.

“We don’t want to tear down historic monuments because that’s divisive to the community,” he says. “What we want to do is recognize historical actions and the people who were involved in those actions.”

And doing so, in the very room that Gregory Hayes Swanson v. The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia was decided, is what Swanson’s nephew, Evans Hopkins, called “poetic justice.”

This year’s General Assembly passed Delegate Jennifer McClellan’s resolution that commemorates the life and legacy of Swanson, who helped pave the way for Brown v. Board of Education, which eventually declared laws requiring blacks and whites to attend separate schools unconstitutional.

“This is over 50 years late, but better late than never,” McClellan said at the unveiling while presenting Hopkins with a framed resolution certificate.

Echoing the words his uncle said after he won his case and was admitted to UVA’s law school, Hopkins said, “Justice starts right here.”