Heading into the weekend before Election Day, we check in with the three leading candidates in Richmond’s mayoral race.
Jack Berry campaigns at The Veil Brewing Co. in Scott's Addition. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Berry: 'We feel a lot of momentum.'
Former Venture Richmond executive Jack Berry appears to be on a hot streak with a few days left before the election.
Berry received an endorsement from the Richmond Free Press on Thursday. The newspaper’s backing came on the heels of his $360,000 October fundraising haul, bolstered by a $150,000 loan from his campaign co-chair. Berry has now raised more money than any mayoral candidate in city history, surpassing the mark Levar Stoney had set earlier in the race.
"We feel a lot of momentum with the Free Press endorsement yesterday, and I also believe Chuck Richardson's strong support will give us a big boost in many parts of the city, especially the 5th [District]," Berry said in an interview Friday afternoon, adding that he thinks Richardson's support may be key in peeling voters away from Morrissey.
Polls have shown Berry with solid leads in the 1st, 2nd and 4th districts. Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College, said earlier this week that those leads will likely grow after the withdrawal of West End Councilman Jon Baliles. That could go a long way to locking Berry in as one of the top two vote-getters citywide, which would ensure his place in a run-off should no candidate win a plurality of the vote in five districts.
However, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch pointed out today, the key question for Berry will be how he performs outside of the city’s majority white wards. On Thursday, Berry’s campaign released to the newspaper an internal poll that showed him leading in the key North Side 3rd District with 31 percent of the vote. Days earlier, the Richmond Association of Realtors, which endorsed Berry in September, released details of a phone survey it said showed Berry with 36 percent of the vote in the district. Each is to be taken with a grain of salt because of who released them, observers say.
On the slate for Berry’s campaign this weekend is a picnic on MacArthur Avenue. The campaign also announced a rally on Brook Road on Monday night.
Joe Morrissey on the campaign trail (Photo by Jay Paul)
Joe Morrissey: 'We’re surging at the right time.'
The front-runner in the race appeared to stumble after an October surprise befell his campaign last week, but Morrissey insists his support is as strong as ever with Election Day looming.
Last Friday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch broke news of a new salacious scandal involving the candidate. A woman who sought legal representation from his law firm told the newspaper that Morrissey exposed himself to her, then sent her sexually suggestive text messages after she refused his advances. The woman said she received the texts at a time when Morrissey’s then-fiancée and now wife, Myrna, was pregnant with the couple’s second child, the newspaper reported. In a statement, Morrissey acknowledged that “flirtatious texts” were exchanged, but denied having exposed himself to the woman.
The woman also told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Morrissey’s firm pressured her to take a plea agreement that landed her in a Henrico County jail. A judge released her last week after she retained new lawyers. At a news conference held last weekend, Morrissey and an attorney he retained vehemently denied any wrongdoing and asked the newspaper to retract its story and apologize. Morrissey’s lawyer reiterated the request at a news conference held in front of the Henrico County Jail this past week. The newspaper has stood by its reporting.
Earlier in the week, The Washington Post quoted Morrissey's campaign manager as saying the negative press had diminished the candidate’s chances. That’s not true, Morrissey said in an interview Friday afternoon.
“We’re surging at the right time,” he said.
Morrissey's campaign also drew the ire of the state Democratic Party, which took legal action over a sample ballot the candidate mailed out that erroneously identified him as the endorsed Democrat in the race.
Each public poll that has been released has shown Morrissey leading in five or more districts. If he carries five districts on Tuesday, he will win the election outright. For that to happen, he must protect tenuous leads in the 3rd and the 5th districts from Berry and Stoney. Marty Mooradian, a spokesman for the campaign, says it’s all hands on deck for door-knocking this weekend.
Morrissey’s campaign has also taken a different tack, waving signs on major roads during morning and afternoon commutes. The unorthodox approach has generated excitement, Mooradian says.
“They treat the guy like he’s one of the Beatles, you know? It’s an interesting thing. There’s a lot of activity in terms of honking, but the thumbs up, the smiles, all that stuff. It’s pretty neat.”
Levar Stoney visits a church in Richmond's East End. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Levar Stoney: Campaign ‘peaking at right time’
The former secretary of the commonwealth is confident heading into the final days of the race.
“I’ve always felt we were peaking at the right time,” Stoney said in an interview Thursday night at his campaign headquarters. “You don’t want to peak in August or September. You want to peak now … I think we’re going to perform very, very well on Tuesday.”
The Stoney campaign has raised more than $850,000 and reached some 60,000 voters by door knocking or phone banking since April. A weekend of round-the-clock canvassing, with a focus on the crucial 3rd and 5th districts, will push that figure higher. If Stoney is able to win one or both of the battleground districts, it would all but guarantee a run-off scenario between the top two vote-getters citywide.
Stoney is the only candidate to make a concerted effort to weaken his opponents using negative mailers, with many landing in 3rd District voters’ mailboxes. One piece targeted Morrissey for an incident during his time as commonwealth’s attorney, when he had two guns stolen out of his car. The piece targeting Berry pointed to a vote he cast while serving on a committee tasked with helping Mayor Dwight C. Jones close a Richmond Public Schools budget gap. Politifact weighed in on the mailer’s claim earlier this week, ruling it “mostly false.”
Stoney and Berry have jockeyed to distinguish themselves as the anti-Morrissey candidate. The stakes were raised earlier this week, when Baliles dropped out of the race. He has not endorsed any remaining candidate, but has said he may. Even if he doesn’t, Bob Holsworth, a longtime political observer, hypothesized that Stoney may be the biggest beneficiary of Baliles’ withdrawal.
Over the course of his campaign, Stoney has announced endorsement from the likes of his former boss, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and the city’s first black mayor, former Sen. Henry Marsh, as well as several state legislators and local interest groups, including the Richmond City Democratic Committee. However, he says a Baliles endorsement would trump them all heading into Election Day.
“Jon’s endorsement will be the biggest endorsement of the campaign,” Stoney said.
