Gov. McAuliffe’s state address
Marsh brothers, others to be honored A5
Richmond Free Press © 2015 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 24 NO. 3
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Henrico Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey joins in applauding visitors Wednesday to the General Assembly. He is facing potential sanctions from his colleagues in the House as the result of his conviction last month of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
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JAnuary 15-17, 2015
Joe locks up win, gets cold shoulder Delegate Morrissey back in General Assembly
Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Delegate Morrissey, left, distantly checks his work while, beside him, two new delegates, Joseph E. Preston of Petersburg and Kathleen Murphy of Loudoun County, enjoy their first day at the new session in the House of Delegates.
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Joseph D. “Fighting Joe” Morrissey is back in the General Assembly. The embattled legislator received rock star treatment Wednesday from a gaggle of TV, radio and print reporters who followed his every move and hung on his words, but mostly got the icy shoulder from fellow lawmakers. Fresh from winning re-election in a special election the night before, Delegate Morrissey was virtually ignored by the men and women he serves with after being sworn in at his legisla-
tive office about 11:25 a.m. and walking into the Capitol to take his seat in the House of Delegates for the opening of the new session at noon. Only Richmond Delegate Delores L. McQuinn walked over to speak with him during a recess. The 57-year-old lawyer appeared to have braced himself for a different reception. Responding to a question about how he would deal with any effort by the legislature to expel him, he said he expects “certain people to take certain actions, and I will respond then.” However, instead of being greeted with verbal brickbats,
Legislative Black Caucus unveils 2015 priorities By Joey Matthews
The Legislative Black Caucus unveiled its legislative agenda for the 2015 General Assembly session Wednesday at the State Capitol.
The 18-member caucus, led by chair Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, announced it would again seek expansion of the Medicaid health program, but acknowledged that’s a long shot given that Republicans, who killed it last year,
control the state Senate and House of Delegates. “If I had to bet on it, I would bet Republicans will continue to resist common Please turn to A4
Councilwoman Robertson a quiet force By Jeremy M. Lazarus
When the smoke cleared from the election of City Council’s new officers, it would have been no surprise if Ellen F. Robertson seemed disappointed not to be holding the president’s gavel instead of virtual newcomer Michelle R. Mosby. After all, Ms. Robertson has served as council’s vice president for six years. And while Ms. Mosby, 9th District, is in her first term, Ms. Robertson has served nearly 11 years as the 6th District representative and ranks as the longest-serving member on the city’s governing body. However, Ms. Robertson said she is far too busy to be disappointed, and she has good reason to say that. While she did not gain council’s top leadership post, she now ranks among the most influential members when it comes to significant council initiatives, particularly in the areas of schools, affordable housing and job creation. Her fingerprints can be found on virtually every important council policy in recent years. That includes pushing her colleagues to create council’s own staff after the mayor’s post became a separate, citywide elective office in 2004. In recent months, for example, she
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Ellen F. Robertson makes a point during a 2011 City Council meeting when she was vice president.
spearheaded a resolution with several colleagues that has put the council on record in support of a financing plan to provide schools with up to $30 million to pay for critical needs. She also is serving as the council’s representative to a School Board committee that will soon report on where money needs to be spent to keep dozens of aging school buildings operational. Ms. Robertson also co-chairs Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ initiative that is seeking to find ways to overcome the poverty that
grips one in four residents — putting her at the center of policy and program developments in this area. As part of that work, she is advocating for the city’s purchase of the vacant Conrad Center — a former soup kitchen for the homeless and working poor near the new jail — to create a job training and community development center. The effort, Ms. Robertson said, could result in programs that train people for work in hotels and restaurants. She also wants the space to house a program that trains people for jobs in landscaping that is now operated by a parks department volunteer, Charles Price. On the affordable housing front, Ms. Robertson is continuing efforts she began more than three decades ago when she began a nonprofit to turn around the decaying Highland Park section of North Side, a nonprofit that ultimately renovated, upgraded or overhauled 300 homes. As the founder and leader of the Highland Park Restoration and Preservation Program, she also helped usher in a change in policy that allows federal Community Development Block Grant funding to be used for down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, assistance now taken for granted in RichPlease turn to A4
Delegate Morrissey sat largely unnoticed in a corner seat next to the Speaker of the House’s dais, his only unexpected recognition coming from House Speaker William J. Howell, a Republican, who welcomed him and four other newcomers. Three of the new lawmakers were seated at desks in the same front row as Delegate Morrissey. In his remarks to the members, Speaker Howell made no mention of the sex scandal surrounding Delegate Morrissey, or the fact that he is now spending his nights in the Henrico County Jail East stemming from his conviction from having an illicit relationship in 2013 with his then 17-year-old receptionist. The teen, now 18, is pregnant. Instead, the speaker called on House members to live up to the expectations of citizens to do their lawmaking with “honor, integrity and civility.” Asked after the session about plans for sanctions against Delegate Morrissey, whom the speaker believes has disgraced the office, Speaker Howell said: “Stay tuned.” Delegate David Toscano, leader of the 32 Democrats in the House, said, “We’re considering all of our options” with regard to the possibility that Delegate Morrissey could be censured, removed from committees or even expelled. “It’s a mess and a distraction,” said a Richmond area delegate who did not want to be identified. “What do we do about him?” Delegate Morrissey’s return, complete with an ankle monitor so authorities can track him, came after he beat two challengers to reclaim his seat. Please turn to A4
McDonnell can appeal — but from behind bars By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell can appeal his conviction, but he will have to do so from behind bars, U.S. Judge James R. Spencer ruled this week. Mr. McDonnell must report to federal prison Monday, Feb. 9. He was sentenced Jan. 6 to two years in prison after being convicted in September on 11 federal corruption charges. In a three-page order issued Tuesday, Judge Spencer rejected the ex-governor’s request to remain free on bond while he seeks to get his conviction overturned by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. McDonnell could ask the appeals court to overturn Judge Spencer’s bond decision, as well as appeal his conviction. As yet, he has not done so. Judge Spencer wrote that none of the grounds on which Mr. McDonnell sought bail raised “a substantial question of law Please turn to A4
Living history
Petersburg man holds memories from Selma march By Joey Matthews
As people across the nation flocked to the movies to watch “Selma,” 80-year-old Petersburg native Herbert V. Coulton Sr. already knew the story — because he was there. “It was indescribable,” Mr. Coulton said. “They did anything they could to stop us. It’s hard to believe how rough things were.” Mr. Coulton, who was the Virginia field director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the time, went to the march in the Alabama city in 1965 to join the critical and growing effort to gain voting rights for African-Americans. He described how white police officers on foot and horseback severely beat marchers with billy clubs and bullwhips, sprayed them with tear gas and knocked them to the ground with high-
powered water hoses. “It was awful,” he told the Free Press from his home this week. “Some people were knocked unconscious and others were screaming and badly bleeding.” German Shepherd dogs leashed by police chewed into the flesh of demonstrators, he said. Refusing to succumb to the terror and intimidation tactics, the peaceful demonMr. Coulton strators, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., changed U.S. history forever when they completed the third and final march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery. The 54-mile civil rights march began March 21, 1965, with
about 3,000 peaceful marchers. But by the time they completed the five-day walk March 25 at the State Capitol in Montgomery, an estimated 25,000 demonstrators celebrated at a victory rally. “There was a lot of pride in that moment,” Mr. Coulton recalled. A little more than four months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. His action was spurred in large part by the final triumphant march, which included two earlier unsuccessful attempts to march to Montgomery. The importance of the iconic march is more pronounced today, with the federal Voting Rights Act under siege after the Please turn to A4