COMPILED BY ANDREW CAIN
December 4, 2023
Mayor Levar Stoney is shown Friday outside of Richmond City Hall.
Michael Martz reports that Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has announced his 2025 campaign for governor, touting practical experience gained from almost seven years as mayor of the state capital city and his commitment to giving all people what he called “a fair shot at success.”
Stoney would be the second African American to serve as Virginia’s governor. In 1990 Doug Wilder became the nation’s first elected Black govenor.
Stoney’s announcement in a video Monday morning sets up a Democratic nomination contest that – so far – pits him against Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th.
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Martz reports that the video cites Stoney’s accomplishments as mayor that have less to do with big economic development projects that failed — such as a twice-rejected proposal for a casino resort or the failed Navy Hill redevelopment of downtown — than nuts-and-bolts improvements in the city’s finances, repair of roads and sidewalks, a reduction in poverty, and increased investments in schools and affordable housing.
“We brought down Confederate statues that don’t reflect our values and built up schools that do,” he said in a reference to the city’s removal of monuments to the Confederacy after nightly protests that erupted in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and targeted the statues as symbols of entrenched racism.
In the 2025 Democratic primary Stoney likely would have to run strong in Hampton Roads and in the Richmond area in order to offset Spanberger’s advantage in Northern Virginia. In Spanberger’s first two runs for Congress – when the 7th District was based in the Richmond suburbs – Henrico and Chesterfield counties propelled her to victory.
On Wednesday Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Senate president pro tempore and incoming chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, posted a photo of herself with Stoney on social media and referred to him as “our next governor.”
In 2021 Lucas and Stoney were two of the three campaign co-chairs for former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Stoney political mentor who lost the election for governor to Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary likely will face a formidable GOP opponent, either Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia, or Attorney General Jason Miyares, the first Hispanic person elected to statewide office in Virginia. READ MORE
WHAT’S NEXT?
GOP debate: Republican presidential candidates hold their fourth debate Wednesday in Alabama. So far four have qualified: Former President Donald Trump – who reportedly does not plan to attend – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Liberty’s CJ Daniels (seven catches, 157 yards, TD) celebrates after a catch in the second half of the Conference USA championship game Friday. Liberty won 49-35 to move to 13-0.
WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
Flames’ Fiesta: Sports columnist David Teel writes that Liberty University’s Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl berth against Oregon and James Madison University’s Dec. 23 test against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl attest to the rapid rise of both Virginia programs. READ MORE
Menorah lighting: Eliza Noe of The Daily Press reports that a Dec. 10 menorah lighting for Hanukkah at an art and music festival in Williamsburg was canceled amid the Israel-Hamas war. READ MORE
School Board flips: Anna Bryson reports that some conservatives in school board races suffered setbacks Nov. 7 in localities that have become hotbeds in the culture wars. READ MORE
Susanna Gibson: Charlotte Rene Woods reports that Susanna Gibson, who nearly won a Henrico seat in the House of Delegates despite reports that she had live streamed sex acts with her husband, wants to strengthen Virginia’s revenge porn law. READ MORE
From left, Diane Sawyer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, are seen on stage at the Women’s Conference Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010, in Long Beach, Calif.
O’Connor’s gesture
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered one of the signature opinions of her career in 1996, the majority decision that Virginia Military Institute’s males-only admissions policy was unconstitutional.
In marking the death of former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, it’s worth noting that Ginsburg would not have written the opinion unless O’Connor gave her the chance.
In her 2015 book “Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World,” author Linda Hirshman writes that O’Connor initially was in line to write the opinion, but offered it to Ginsburg, a justice with a different philosophy on many issues, but a kindred spirit in advancing women’s rights.
In a 2015 NPR piece about Hirshman’s book, Nina Totenberg writes: “As it happens, the VMI case, the jewel in the crown of Ginsburg majority opinions, written less than three years into her tenure, would not have been hers to write but for O’Connor. As is the custom, the senior justice in the majority had assigned O’Connor to write the opinion.
“But in a moment of great generosity, O’Connor demurred, saying, ‘This should be Ruth’s.’ “
Sgt. Edward Gore, a Richmond Public Schools safety and security officer, hugs a student arriving at Fairfield Court Elementary for the first day of the 2023-24 academic year.
IN OTHER NEWS
• Anna Bryson reports that Richmond Public Schools has made significant strides in cutting chronic absenteeism. Here’s how it did it. READ MORE
• Eric Kolenich reports that Virginia’s EMS system is embroiled in a financial crisis. READ MORE
• Dave Ress reports that Powhatan County is utilizing a new tool to preserve rural land. READ MORE
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Delis Bediako and the Main Street Station a cappella group sing carols during the Maymont Merry Market in Richmond on Saturday. The park’s Merry Market, which features local artisans and vendors, will return this coming weekend.
MONDAY TRIVIA
Who was the longest-living child of a U.S. president?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When I was little, I could lie in the field for hours and never hear anyone else. Across the way, there were no houses. Now, my house is way back there, but (I) can still hear the traffic. I’m just trying to preserve what’s here.”
– Wilson Denoon of Powhatan County. He is adding his 137 acres to the Agricultural and Forestal District his cousin Jimmy Willis launched in the early 1990s.
TRIVIA ANSWER
Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt, died in 1980 at 96. Helen Harron Taft Manning, daughter of President William Howard Taft and his wife, Helen Harron Taft, died in 1987 at age 95.