Richmond mayor Dwight Jones is Terry McAuliffe’s pick to be the next chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. Their partnership has been growing for some time, with McAuliffe lending a hand to Jones’s proposal for a baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Hizzoner’s coronation: the progressive Democratic base doesn’t like the way he thinks about same-sex marriage and will oppose Jones unless he “makes a strong public statement in support of legal marriage equality.”
As amusing as it is to watch this unfold, there’s a legitimate question as to what Gov. McAuliffe was thinking when he put Jones’s name forward. Perhaps he wasn’t. Then again, perhaps McAuliffe believes he, like other sitting governors, is entitled to his pick. If folks don’t like it, they can lump it.
So we may have an intra-party test brewing for Mr. McAuliffe between two centers of Democratic power. Jones wants the job because he wants to be a player on the national stage. And it’s a pretty nice gig, in the right hands. If he wants it badly enough, Jones may make the statement demanded of him and hope it suits. McAuliffe may say a few placating words, too. But then he will press ahead.
McAuliffe has always had a tenuous relationship with progressives, who disliked his money-above-everything turn as DNC chairman. The Jones episode could bring all that past rancor back to the forefront.
Get the popcorn…
