by Dick Hall-Sizemore

The biggest story from the Democratic Primary contest for Lieutenant Governor was that the folks that know Levar Stoney the best, the citizens of Richmond where he was mayor for eight years, are the ones who kept him from winning the nomination for Lieutenant Governor.

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (Chesterfield) won the nomination in a six-candidate race with 27.39 percent of the vote.  Stoney was close behind with 26.64 per cent.  (The source of all election data is the website of the Virginia Dept. of Elections.)  Looking at the actual votes, Hashmi beat Stoney by 3,600 votes statewide.  Her margin in Richmond over Stoney was 10,509 votes.  Without that margin in Richmond, Hashmi would have lost.  

There is anecdotal evidence that Richmond voters blamed Stoney for the water problems that occurred shortly after he left the mayoral office and left the city without water for a week and made national news.  There were other controversies, as well.

Taken together, the list of statewide office candidates is remarkable, strong proof of how far Virginia has come in 50 years.  Consider:

• Both gubernatorial candidates are women (Spanberger; Earle-Sears)
• Half of the combined tickets are women (Spanberger; Earle-Sears; Hashmi)
• Two came to America as children (Earle-Sears (Jamaica); Hashmi (India))
• One is the son of immigrants (Miyares (Cuba))
• Only two are non-Hispanic whites (Spanberger; Reid)
• Two are Black (Earle-Sears, Jones)
• One is Hispanic (Miyares)
• One is Asian (Hashmi)
• One is openly gay (Reid)
• One Muslim (Hashmi)
• Only two lawyers (Jones; Miyares)
• None from Northern Virginia