RICHMOND — Virginia Democrats face the biggest test yet of their newfound political might when the General Assembly convenes Tuesday for a special legislative session aimed at major issues of state finances, criminal justice and racial equity.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, previewing themes that will play out nationally this fall in a presidential election of historic consequence. And for Virginia Democrats, the outcome could determine whether they hold on to the power they won just a year ago, teeing up next year’s races for governor and control of the House.
“It’s really uncharted territory for the Democrats,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. A new crop of young liberals, backed by the electoral might of Northern Virginia and other urban areas, is pushing to build on the state’s rapid evolution from red to blue.
“Now there is a much clearer delineation between what it means to be a Democrat in Richmond and what it means to be a Republican in Richmond, exactly like the change that’s occurred in Washington over the last 40 years,” he said.
The result is a special legislative session unlike anything Richmond has seen in recent times. Even the logistics will be unusual, thanks to social distancing restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. As it did during a one-day session in April to take up measures vetoed by the governor, the Senate will convene in a large conference room at the Science Museum of Virginia.
The House, which met outdoors in April, will assemble at a Virginia Commonwealth University sports arena. But this time House leaders intend to take the rest of the session online, sending members home to reconvene in virtual meetings once they work out the necessary rules changes.
And the special session’s packed agenda could last as long as a month.
Northam initially called the session to address the state’s budget, which has seen a $2.7 billion hole blown into it by the pandemic. But after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May touched off months of protests for racial justice around the country and in the streets of Richmond, pressure grew to widen the scope.
“We’re done dying,” Robert Barnette, head of the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, said at a news conference Friday calling on lawmakers to enact an ambitious agenda of criminal justice reform.
Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have responded by proposing separate slates of bills. Senators style themselves as more aggressive than their counterparts in the House — a difference that could be tied to the fact that delegates face elections next year while senators do not.
“Our package is more focused on the entire system and not just policing,” Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said Friday. “We have a critical opportunity and an historic opportunity to correct a lot of the historical wrongs that have been going on in this state for hundreds of years that’s been presented to us and handed to us right now.”
The Senate bills aim to give judges more leeway in sentencing, create more opportunities for inmates to be released from jail and empower the state attorney general to exercise more oversight of local law enforcement.
Surovell introduced the most controversial bill, which would reduce the charge for assaulting a police officer from a felony to a misdemeanor, unless the officer was injured.
The agenda unveiled last week by House Democrats focuses primarily on changes to police practices that are likely to draw widespread agreement, such as tightening restrictions on police misconduct and strengthening public oversight. The House has proposed a few more provocative steps, such as ending qualified immunity for police officers and allowing some criminal records to be expunged.
Some issues are likely to be set aside for further study and consideration at the regular General Assembly session that convenes in January. But Democrats insist they are serious about recasting the state’s approach to criminal justice.
Noting that Virginia led a national trend in the early 1990s of harsher sentences and abolishing parole, one Democratic strategist said the state will now bend the “historical arc” in the other direction. “I think Virginia is going to lead on deconstructing some of that and getting some reform,” said the strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Beyond criminal justice issues, lawmakers also plan to address matters related to the pandemic and its economic consequences.
On Monday, Sen. Barbara A. Favola (D-Arlington) and Del. Elizabeth R. Guzman (D-Prince William) touted a bill that would require employers to provide workers with 80 hours of paid sick leave during health emergencies.
Last week, Northam announced several such priorities in his agenda for the session, including setting aside $88 million to reduce evictions and expand access to affordable housing. He also urged passage of measures to prevent utilities from cutting off service until 60 days after the coronavirus state of emergency ends.
House and Senate Republicans, powerless to stop anything Democrats can agree on, see the special session as a chance to hammer the other side of the aisle as soft on crime. It’s a theme they hope will boost the GOP in key suburban congressional contests this year and in the races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in 2021.
The party hasn’t won a statewide race since 2009 and has lost ground in once reliably red suburbs since President Trump took office in 2017. But Republicans are betting the suburbanites who recoil at Trump are having the same reaction to the vandalism and harsh anti-police rhetoric that has accompanied some of the recent protests.
“The Democrats are busy preparing for their ‘Defund the Police’ Special Session of the General Assembly next week and watching Richmond literally burn,” Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Rockingham) said in a fundraising appeal last week for the Vision for Virginia political action committee.
The Republican leadership PAC said it needed funds to keep running a TV ad, which blasts the state Parole Board for freeing 95 felons in the spring, as the threat of the coronavirus prompted a review of all inmates eligible for release. Virginia eliminated parole in 1995, but those let go were eligible because their convictions predated that change. The ad focuses on the release of Patrick Schooley Jr., who as a 15-year-old in 1979 robbed, raped and fatally stabbed a 78-year-old grandmother.
“The Republicans certainly believe they can get some traction here,” said Bob Holsworth, a veteran Richmond political analyst. “The Democrats, on the other hand, believe this is a big issue for their base and a big issue that’s overdue.”
Republicans also think they might be able to box in Democrats on the issue of police funding. In the spring, Northam froze new spending in the state budget to brace for the cost of fighting the pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown. One of the items frozen was raises for local law enforcement.
It seems unlikely there will be enough money to restore those raises, so “Republicans are going to be able to make a pretty easy argument . . . that they therefore defunded the police,” said one GOP strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss party strategy.
There will be some areas of consensus, though. Some Republicans have signaled a willingness to back efforts to remove “bad apples” from law enforcement. And some have sponsored measures that nibble around the edges of the broader criminal justice system. For instance, Sen. Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) has proposed a bill prohibiting the use of “neck restraints,” including chokeholds.
But House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) has warned that taking less-lethal tactics off the table will result in more deaths among both police and suspects.
Many of the bills Republicans are advancing have no prospect for passage, but they are meant to send a message — with one eye toward next year’s state elections. Several bills would limit the governor’s ability to take executive action during an emergency, such as the steps Northam has taken to shut down businesses and require people to wear masks because of the pandemic.
A group of Republicans is also preparing legislation aimed at public schools, such as giving local school divisions immunity from coronavirus-related lawsuits and a budget amendment to set aside $100 million in federal relief money to reimburse parents for expenses related to teaching kids at home.
Del. David A. LaRock (R-Loudoun) has put forward a measure that calls for hydroxychloroquine — the antimalarial drug Trump has touted as a “game changer” against the virus but which major studies have found to be ineffective — to be made available for treating covid-19.
It wasn’t clear whether those bills would even get a hearing during the session. One Republican operative said Monday that members had been told to expect House committees to take up only Democratic bills.
“We will examine every bill and every resolution that is filed,” said Jake Rubenstein, a spokesman for House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax).