Dysfunction Junction

Virginia's Statewide Contests Near an End

So, here we are. The morning steals upon the night. The election approaches. Two weeks to go.

About this debate last week. It raised a number of questions and not just about the two candidates for attorney general.

Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate, said he was sorry for sending out hateful text messages three years ago speculating on the violent demise of then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.

Is he? Is Jones truly sorry? A year or two ago – or immediately after sending those comments – did Jay say to himself, wow, maybe I shouldn’t have expressed those thoughts in a place where I might have to revisit them?

The messages were sent to a female Republican member of the House of Delegates, which is curious on its own. Did he reconsider, express regret and ask her to erase what he wrote? Once nominated for statewide office this year, did Jones anticipate potential problems and take preemptive action? Did he get out in front of it and publicly apologize? Did he seize the initiative?

Nope. He didn’t do any of those things and it’s reasonable, on that basis, to doubt the quality of his judgment.

What about the 116 mph New Kent County speeding ticket? Courts keep records of such things and it was easily discoverable.

This is the other thing in all this. We have the semblance of a press corps in Virginia, but is it fully functional? Has anyone run through the traffic court records of other jurisdictions that Jones visits? Maybe he’s zippity-do all over the place?

Why assume that the text messages thus far reported represent the totality of what Jones has communicated to others. Has anyone asked him about that? Hand us that phone. Now that we’ve received some inkling of Jones’ mind at work, let’s see what else is on there.

Jay’s not sorry. He’s just sorry it got out in the open while he’s trying to become attorney general. Rather inconvenient. Obliges him to manage matters a bit.

Do the obnoxious text messages work to the advantage of the incumbent attorney general, Republican Jason Miyares? Will voters reward him for being the potentially less lethal of the two candidates?

It could, but a great number of Virginians voted before any of this came out and it’s an open question whether subsequent voters care enough about Jones’ text messaging to change their political thinking.

There are, of course, other things at stake. That’s why Jay appeared at the televised debate with a large “Trump” sign around his neck (sort of) with a flashing, neon arrow pointing at Miyares.

American voters have a knack for being practical. Did Jay Jones actually kill Todd Gilbert? That would be the operative question and, if not, many voters might receive the answer as interesting, but incidental.

For his part, Miyares has done what everybody does when something odd emerges in the heat of a political campaign and labored to make as much of it as possible. That invariably leads to exaggerations and soon you hear that Jay not only killed Gilbert, but everyone in the town where Gilbert lived.

Think of Clint Eastwood at the end of the 1992 film, “Unforgiven.” It goes like this: “You better bury Ned right!… Better not cut up, nor otherwise harm no whores… or I’ll come back and kill every one of you sons of bitches.”

Or was that Clint in “High Plains Drifter,” “Pale Rider” or “The Outlaw Josey Wales?”

Any rate, the idea -- the objectionable idea, implies Miyares -- would be violence as viable path forward. Others might say that violence is not the issue. Frontier justice is.

Herein rests an ancient human impulse: Payback.

Consider June, 1962, following the crash of an Air France 707 -- the “Château de Sully” -- outside Paris. The plane never quite got in the air (a mechanical fault in the elevator trim system, it was discovered) and ran the full length of Runway 8 at Paris-Orly Airport, struck the approach lights beyond the airfield boundary and plowed into the ill-located town of Villeneuve-le-Roi.

Several flight attendants, seated in the airplane’s tail, survived. The dead numbered 120 people and included more than 100 members of Atlanta’s arts and civic community, then returning home from a month-long European art tour sponsored by the Atlanta Art Association. The crash left 33 children orphaned and 21 spouses widowed, reports said.

Asked about this wretched tragedy, Malcolm X, a noted racial justice warrior of that era, characterized the event as divine retribution -- a “blessing from Allah” -- saying that “God gets rid of 120 of them in one whop” and that he hoped “every day another plane falls out of the sky.”

My goodness. By comparison, Jay Jones becomes an exemplar of restrained moderation.

​“As you sow, so shall you reap,” ​Malcolm bellowed. And, after Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965? Same commentary, more or less.

People think such things and say such things. It’s the urge for retribution, it frequently screams and sometimes never really stops. At this moment, President Trump is betting on short memories in and around Gaza and that’s hardly likely.

So, about Jones’ texted utterances: Will it make a difference?

I’m not sure. How’s that for a self-assured prediction? As Jones insists, there are other things to reflect upon.

For instance, if you talk to lawyers about Jones’ edgy partisanship -- especially those inclined to be Democrats -- you often hear in response the name Timothy Heaphy. That’s because after Jason Miyares took office as attorney general in January 2022, he fired roughly 30 lawyers and staff, including the office’s entire Conviction Integrity Unit and the university counsels for the University of Virginia and George Mason University.

The highly-regarded Heaphy was UVA’s counsel and Miyares later characterized his dismissal as customary. Miyares claimed to be realigning the office.

If elected, will Jones go the same partisan route and unload people wholesale? I wouldn’t bet against it. Has anyone asked him?

I’m sorry to be repetitive, but the legacy of the 2025 statewide elections will be about how little we knew about these people – all of them -- as we approached the election. Everyone wants to be an “investigative reporter.” But could we just get to the basics and know a little more about the candidates?

A quick example: Abigail Spanberger, Democratic candidate for governor, served in the CIA. She was an operations officer of some sort and presumably efficient. But what exactly did she do?

Spanberger likely prefers not to discuss it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask a question or two. How often has Virginia considered a statewide candidacy where details of prior employment sat in a no-go zone?

You say to Abigail, hey, Jay Jones dreams of murder, but you may have had some real opportunities. What about that and are poison darts really effective? Did you get the Aston Martin DB5? Virginia would like to know.

Capacity is the real issue, of course. Does she have the capacity for being governor of Virginia? How much does three terms in Congress really tell you?

About the overall picture, I will venture a prophecy:

Once the last votes have been counted, Republican office-holders and aspirants, including their current fearless leader, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, may wish they’d put just a smidgeon of distance between themselves and Trump. Virginians have long rewarded pols who think for themselves. I don’t think that’s changed yet.

It works the other way, too. For Democrats, Trump has become the spice mélange. A whiff of Trump extends life. Enhances awareness. Allows Guild navigators to fold space.

Or, as one Democratic pollster told The New York Times, “I worry that Donald Trump is like crack cocaine for our party.”

For Democrats, Trump lately provides the all-utility excuse to avoid serious discussion of Virginia choices ahead and, truth be, in past statewide elections, we’ve only intermittently done well in that respect.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute; the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” Confucius supposedly said that and he would find no reassurance in Virginia this year. As the results near, we’re stuck with more questions than answers.