(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Bagby drops out of congressional race and endorses McClellan [1]
['Michael Martz Richmond Times-Dispatch', 'Michael Martz', 'Alexa Welch Edlund Times-Dispatch']
Date: 2022-12
Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, said Thursday that he is dropping his bid for the 4th District congressional seat and endorsing state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond.
“This is a real opportunity for me to be a leader for my community and do what is the greater good,” Bagby said in an interview at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.
Bagby’s announcement leaves McClellan and Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, as the leading contenders for the party’s nomination to seek the seat of former Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, who died Nov. 28 after a long battle with colorectal cancer.
McClellan said in an interview that she and Bagby had not reached any agreement on his candidacy. “He made his decision and I learned about it, like everybody else,” she said in an interview. McClellan subsequently spoke with him and thanked him for his endorsement.
“We’ve been partners ever since he first got elected to the House,” she said. “I’m glad we could focus on working together and continuing Donald’s legacy.”
At a Thursday afternoon news conference in South Richmond, Morrissey pledged to stay in the race and accused Democratic leaders of rigging the primary process against him and then inducing Bagby to drop out of the field.
“Did you really have to buy Lamont to come out of the race?” he asked after making a statement.
Bagby, asked about the comment, said, “Why would Morrissey care if I’m in or out and why would I respond to his racist comments?”
“If folks don’t know who he is by now, well God bless ’em,” he said. “Based on whatever nonsense Morrissey is saying, Jenn McClellan is the clear and only choice to represent this district.”
Morrissey said the Democratic leadership tried to stop him three years ago, when he defeated Sen. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, in a primary by 12 percentage points. “They’re doing what they’ve always done: anoint and appoint,” he said.
“I didn’t quit three years ago,” Morrissey promised. “I will not quit now.”
It is not the first time that Bagby has stepped aside for McClellan, who was elected in 2016 to succeed McEachin in the Virginia Senate after he was first elected to Congress. If she wins the 4th District Democratic nomination on Tuesday and a special election on Feb. 21, he is likely to run for her vacant Senate seat.
Bagby, who had announced his congressional campaign Monday, expounded on his decision Thursday in taping an episode of The Randy Wilson Podcast at The Jefferson.
“Randy, I know this might shock you, but I’m going to tell you why I’m not running for Congress,” Bagby said.
Bagby, chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said it had been “a rough couple of weeks” since McEachin’s death. He said he thought about the work he had done with McEachin and with McClellan, vice chair of the Legislative Black Caucus.
“You have two strong-willed individuals lockjaw on a piece of steak, as people may see it, and if no one gives, we continue to be crabs in a barrel,” said Bagby, referring to McClellan. “I want to be an example that sometimes you have to sacrifice for the greater good and so I am going to be stepping out of this race and putting my full support behind my vice chair, Jennifer McClellan.”
He said that while people are taking sides in the Democratic contest, he and McClellan are “really on the same side.”
It is the biggest of a series of endorsements for McClellan, who received the backing of U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., on Wednesday. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who on Wednesday said he would not endorse in the contest, on Thursday backed McClellan after Bagby dropped out.
On Thursday, McClellan also received the support of Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who had endorsed Bagby; Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th; former House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax; and Emily’s List, a national organization supporting female candidates.
The race for the Democratic nomination had divided the Black community in the Richmond area. Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, in her eighth term in the House of Delegates, convened a meeting with Bagby and McClellan on Wednesday night, according to a source close to the discussions.
McClellan deferred to McQuinn, who was not available for comment. Bagby said his decision to withdraw was not directly related to the meeting.
“We’ve done the work together,” he said of McClellan. “I don’t want this to be divisive.”
The primary race changed dramatically when Morrissey, who is white but has strong support among Black voters, entered the race on Tuesday, the same day as McClellan.
Just before he left office in January, then-Gov. Ralph Northam pardoned Morrissey for a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor related to his relationship with a 17-year-old law firm assistant who later became his wife.
Morrissey, then a delegate, was convicted in 2014. He entered an Alford plea to the misdemeanor count and was sentenced to 12 months in jail with six months suspended. He was allowed to work as a state delegate from Henrico County through a work release program, spending nights in jail in 2015. He lost a bid for mayor of Richmond in 2016.
Morrissey, a former Richmond prosecutor and local defense attorney, has been disbarred but now wields significant power as a member of the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
His license was previously revoked in 2003, and he won reinstatement in 2012 in a 4-3 decision by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Morrissey is campaigning heavily with radio ads. One features an endorsement by conservative radio talk show host John Fredericks, who served as President Donald Trump’s Virginia campaign chair in 2016 and 2020 and attended the senator’s news conference on Thursday afternoon.
On his radio show, Fredericks has been urging Republicans to vote for Morrissey in the Democratic primary, asserting that if he wins the election, he will vote with Republicans 50% of the time. Fredericks said on his show Thursday that he also wants to “stick it to” Democrats he thinks are trying to freeze out Morrissey’s candidacy by holding the primary on a Tuesday rather than a Saturday.
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, made clear his distaste for Morrissey.
“He is a disgrace as a ‘public servant,’” Norment wrote in an email to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Former Gov. Doug Wilder, the nation’s first elected Black governor and a former Richmond mayor, confirmed on Thursday that Bagby had consulted with him about his position in the race.
“My advice to him was, whatever he does, he has to make certain his efforts were for the representation of the people,” Wilder said in an interview.
Wilder expressed his own disappointment in how the primary race had unfolded in a majority-minority district in which 43% of the registered voters are African American.
“This is a Black district, let’s start with that,” he said. “If the Black leadership cannot control the district, what does that say about the Democratic Party? I look upon it as a rejection of Black leadership.”
Democrats will choose their nominee on Tuesday in a canvass at eight polling locations across the 4th District. The district includes all or parts of 15 cities and counties, from Richmond south to Brunswick and Greensville counties on the state line with North Carolina. About 75% of the district’s votes are in Richmond and eastern Chesterfield and eastern Henrico.
The Democratic nomination could be tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic district, which McEachin won by more than 90,000 votes in 2020 and by more than 70,000 votes in 2022.
Two other Democrats are seeking the seat, former Del. Joe Preston, D-Petersburg, and businessman Tavorise Marks.
Republicans will choose their nominee Saturday. Candidates include Leon Benjamin, a pastor who lost to McEachin in 2020 and 2022; Dale Sturdifen, former chair of the Mecklenburg County School Board; and Derrick Hollie, president of Reaching America, a nonprofit advocacy organization. With three candidates, the party will use ranked-choice voting to determine the winner.
Morrissey said the 4th District Democratic Committee had disenfranchised thousands of voters in his Senate district by not including a polling place in their localities, among them Chesterfield, where he now lives in the River Bend area.
After prodding from Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, he said the party added a polling place in North Chesterfield — an area of the county represented by Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield.
“Just play fair,” Morrissey said. “Don’t move the goal lines.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/bagby-drops-out-of-congressional-race-and-endorses-mcclellan/article_e3674ab3-37e7-5a58-a4eb-e37ad7cde899.html
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
