General Discussion

pnwmom

(109,024 posts) Sat Feb 2, 2019, 02:56 AM Feb 2019

The old photo wasn't Northam's only racial screw-up. He ALSO made a tone-deaf campaign error,

in 2017.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/reeks-of-subtle-racism-tensions-after-black-candidate-left-off-fliers-in-virginia/2017/10/18/de74c47a-b425-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.52927a7348fe

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Ralph Northam omitted any mention of Justin Fairfax, the party's African American candidate for lieutenant governor, from about a thousand pieces of campaign literature, which Fairfax called a "mistake." The incident has stoked tensions within the Democratic ticket, threatening to alienate African American voters three weeks before Election Day.

The palm cards with photos of Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) were produced for canvassers with the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), which asked that Fairfax be excluded because it did not endorse him. Fairfax has spoken critically of two proposed natural gas pipelines that the union supports.

SNIP

"It reeks of subtle racism, if not a tone deafness about how we are going to win in November," said Quentin James, the founder of Collective PAC that supports black candidates, including Fairfax. "Leaving Justin Fairfax off .?.?. even if it's only for a small universe of union members, still sends the wrong message."

In an interview Wednesday, Fairfax called the move to exclude him a "mistake" by the Northam campaign but wouldn't call it racism.

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The old photo wasn't Northam's only racial screw-up. He ALSO made a tone-deaf campaign error, (Original Post) pnwmom Feb 2019 OP

I tell ya, I am SHOCKED ... mr_lebowski Feb 2019 #1

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

1. I tell ya, I am SHOCKED ...

Reply to pnwmom (Original post)

Sat Feb 2, 2019, 03:43 AM

Feb 2019

I didn't remember anything about the Governor of the State of Virginia before today, but if you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have bet money that the person they'd elected there in 2016 (year of Trump) was almost certainly a minority, possibly a woman, and heck, maybe even gay.

I mean ... this is Virginia, 2016 we're talking about, right?

For sure I'd have thought the Virginia Governor politically would have been somewhere on the spectrum between George McGovern and Jerry Brown, and depending their age, they'd have been someone who's Daddy marched w/MLK, or who marched w/Jesse Jackson themselves ... the public knowledge of which probably would have catalyzed their Victory, even as Trump 'won'.

But alas ... seems I maybe would have lost THAT bet.

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