Unexpectedly competitive Democratic primary features two strong candidates

In their primary for governor, Democrats have a choice between promises of audacious progressivism and a more incremental liberalism.

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello has called for a massive increase in government investment, particularly in education, despite the likelihood he'll have a Republican-controlled General Assembly blocking his plans.


Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam pitches the idea of progress every day, essentially promising a continuation of Gov. Terry McAuliffe's administration.

Both men have broad experience.

Perriello, 42, grew up in Albemarle County. At 34, he won a single term in Congress, representing Charlottesville and Southside Virginia just long enough to vote for Obamacare and get voted out for it.

He spent time with progressive nonprofits and in Africa, then was hired at the State Department to oversee a once-every-four-years review of strategy and structure.

In 2015, President Barack Obama, an ally since Perriello's time in Congress, appointed him envoy to the African Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where, in 2016, he helped negotiate an agreement intended to stave off civil war.

Thirteen years before that, Perriello was in Sierra Leone working for the War Crimes Tribunal sorting out the end of that country's civil war. Brennan Gilmore, then a U.S. diplomat and now Perriello's chief of staff, said Perriello went village to village, explaining with a translator what the tribunals would mean.

Gilmore said he sees the same ability to "connect at the very grass-roots level" at the town halls that have become a cornerstone of Perriello's campaign for governor.

Northam, 57, grew up on the Eastern Shore and says he's done just about every job a person can do on the Chesapeake Bay.

He headed the honor court at Virginia Military Institute and oversaw neurology and neurosurgery at a triage hospital in Germany during Operation Desert Storm. He's a pediatric neurologist by trade, which means he treats children with brain conditions. He represented parts of Hampton Roads in the state Senate before winning the lieutenant governor's job in 2013.

He believes himself to be the first person to ever dunk a basketball on Tangier Island and can ride a unicycle, yet the book on Northam is this: He's boring. Few profiles fail to include the phrase "soft-spoken."

"There aren't too many folks who can save a life, shuck an oyster and make the case for Medicaid expansion," said Attorney General Mark Herring, who once sat next to Northam in the Senate. "People should never mistake Ralph's decency and warmth for anything but strength."

Herring, once assumed to be a candidate in this race, is seeking re-election instead. He and McAuliffe and every other Democrat elected statewide or to the General Assembly support Northam in this race. Northam has been ever present in Virginia's Democratic politics for a decade, and supporters say he's a trusted fighter for their causes.

Perriello has the progressive rock star credentials: endorsements from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Both candidates served districts less culturally liberal than they themselves may be — Perriello Virginia's 5th Congressional District and Northam the 6th Senate District now held by state Sen. Lynwood Lewis, another Democrat from the Eastern Shore.


Neither is willing to cut the other man a break for some of the things they said or did in those offices. Perriello once had an A rating from the National Rifle Association, a group he now calls "unhinged." He voted for the Stupak Amendment during the Obamacare debate, fulfilling a promise to his district, he has said, to keep taxpayer money from being used to fund abortions.

He has said repeatedly he regrets the vote. Northam has the endorsements from abortion rights groups.

Northam once was courted in the state Senate by the GOP, which wanted to take the chamber's majority by wooing him into a party switch. He told The New York Times this year that he voted for President George W. Bush, twice.

Perriello has said he wants to win votes in red and blue counties and literally redefine politics for a generation.

Northam preaches a more grounded approach, working to replace a Republican majority with a Democratic one while acknowledging Virginia's conservative streak and being willing to compromise.

Here's where the two men stand on key issues.


Perriello pitches universal pre-K and free community college, paid for by new taxes on the rich that would be dead on arrival in a Republican-controlled General Assembly.

Northam promises incremental progress on the same fronts. He puts his community college program's cost at $37 million. It would target only high-demand fields and include a one-year public service commitment.

Perriello's program is broader, and he argues people should move directly into private sector jobs. He values his program at $350 million a year above what the state spends now on two-year colleges.

Both men support universal pre-K, but while Perriello wants to spend another $125 million a year to serve every 4-year-old in a family up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, Northam generally backs a more gradual plan.

During one debate, though, Northam dangled the idea of massive private sector investment in both community college and pre-K, allowing expansions without tax increases. He did not give specifics.

Neither candidate supports an expansion of charter schools in Virginia, though Northam has suggested that once traditional public schools are adequately funded, it might be worth exploring.

Northam has the endorsement of the Virginia Education Association, the state's largest teachers lobby.


Perriello wants to raise $1.1 billion in new revenue to pay for his education plans and for a new family leave requirement in the private sector.

He also wants to lower taxes for the poor.

His plan would increase the state income tax rate for people making more than $500,000 a year by 1 percentage point and by 1.5 percentage points for those making more than $1 million. He'd also charge new sales taxes on some services, including limousine rentals and rounds of golf.

He'd lift the state sales tax on tampons and sanitary napkins, something Northam also has backed.

Perriello's plan includes a new $500 refundable child care tax credit and a change to the Earned Income Tax Credit that would put cash in some poor people's pockets come tax time. He's suggested a number of corporate tax changes, including a floor and other tweaks he says would make it harder for big businesses to game the system.

Northam has proposed a partial rollback in the state's sales tax on groceries and promised a commission to review other reforms. He has described his plans in much less detail than Perriello and cautioned against lofty promises, particularly with federal health policy changes potentially slicing federal funding here for Medicaid.

Northam said he'll push for a plan with bipartisan support that is "progressive, that's fair, that's simple."


"For someone to come in and say, 'This is what I'm going to do with tax reform in Virginia' is probably a little unrealistic."

Perriello has hung his campaign on soaring proposals.

"I think leadership is about saying you can't get something for free," he said during one debate.

Health care

Both men support Medicaid expansion, which would provide taxpayer-funded health insurance to hundreds of thousands of the working poor in Virginia.

Expansion was part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which President Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress are trying to repeal. Replacement would allow states to waive key Obamacare regulations, including caps on what insurance companies can charge people with pre-existing conditions.

Both Democrats have criticized a Republican willingness to pursue those waivers and promised to work to flip the House of Delegates — where Republicans nearly have a super majority — to Democratic Party control. All 100 seats are up this November. In the state Senate, the GOP holds only a single-seat majority.

Depending on what happens at the federal level, flipping control might allow Virginia to expand Medicaid, but electorally it's a long shot.


Perriello has run his campaign not just against Northam or Republicans but against Virginia's most successful corporate lobbyist: Dominion Energy Virginia.

He has promised not to take donations from the state-regulated electric monopoly, blasted the company's influence in Richmond and set himself against a pair of natural gas pipelines the company hopes to see built, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Perriello argues instead for solar and wind energy projects.

Northam has not taken a position for or against the pipelines despite consistent pressure. His stock answer is that science and transparency must guide the process for approving the lines and setting their routes.

It is not Virginia's governor, but federal regulators who will decide whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline brings fracked gas from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina. Among other things, the pipeline would serve Hampton Roads, and Virginia Natural Gas has said it's crucial to any major industrial growth east of Richmond.

Perriello argues there are things a governor can do to slow the pipeline's progress, and he seemed to be shown at least partly right this year when the state's Department of Environmental Quality said it would beef up inspections associated with pipeline construction.

Northam had requested this via formal letter.

Social issues

Both men promise to continue to veto the sorts of Republican bills McAuliffe has — bills restricting abortion, weakening gun control or discriminating against LGBTQ Virginians.

Abortion has been a major issue in this primary, with women's groups backing Northam as the trusted hand. Perriello's vote on the Stupak Amendment haunts him despite repeated promises to be the same "brick wall" McAuliffe has been on this issue.

Northam has the endorsement of NARAL, a national abortion rights group with a chapter in Virginia.


Republican primary preview

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