RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - One of the busiest days on the Virginia legislature's calendar began under a cloud of suspense Tuesday as Gov. Ralph Northam weighed whether he can continue in the job amid the fallout over a racist photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page.
With tension running high, lawmakers began arriving for crossover day - when the House and Senate must finish bills to send to the other chamber - after days of turmoil set off by the photo, which depicts someone in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, left, listens to assistant Senate Crerk, Tara Perkinson, as he prepares to preside over the Senate at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Virginians are now taking a closer look at Fairfax as he suddenly looms as the successor to Gov. Ralph Northam, whose political future is in jeopardy after a blackface photo was discovered on Northam's personal page in his medical school yearbook. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)Amid a barrage of calls for his resignation from his own party, the 59-year-old Democratic governor gave no public indication of which way he was leaning as he met privately with top advisers.
State Sen. Louise Lucas, a prominent African-American lawmaker and former Northam ally who has pressed for him to step down, said the governor doesn't need to take a few more days to consider his options and make up his mind.
"I am so praying that he will do that and get it behind us," Lucas said. "What's a little bit more of time going to do for us?"
In another sign of the difficulty he faces in carrying out his duties, a statement from Northam offering condolences on the death of a state trooper in a shootout prompted a fresh flurry Tuesday of Twitter comments urging him to step down.
The uncertainty comes at a time when Northam's office is in the middle of negotiations with the Republican-controlled legislature over a major tax overhaul and changes to the state budget.
Nearly all of the state's Democratic establishment has turned against Northam, as have many of the party's national figures, but no one from his Cabinet has resigned.
The political crisis deepened when the man next in line to be governor, Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, was confronted with an uncorroborated allegation of sexual misconduct first reported by a conservative website. Fairfax denied the allegation Monday and called it a political smear, telling reporters the 2004 encounter with a woman was consensual.
The woman has retained Washington law firm Katz Marshall & Banks and is consulting with it about her next steps, said a person close to the legal team who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the firm's founding partners, Debra Katz, represented Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades ago when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the allegation and later was confirmed to the court.
The Associated Press is not reporting the details of the Fairfax accusation because AP has not been able to corroborate it.
Northam, a pediatric neurologist who graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School and came to politics late in life, is one year into his four-year term. If Northam resigns, Fairfax will become the second black governor in Virginia history.
The furor over the photo erupted Friday, when Northam first admitted he was in the picture without saying which costume he was wearing, and apologized. But a day later, he denied he was in the photo, while also acknowledging he once used shoe polish to blacken his face and look like Michael Jackson at a dance contest in Texas decades ago.
As for the allegations against the lieutenant governor, The Washington Post said Monday that it was approached by the woman in 2017 and carefully investigated but never published a story for lack of any independent evidence.
The Post said the woman had not told anyone about it, the account could not be corroborated, Fairfax denied it, and the Post was unable to find other similar allegations against him among people who knew him in college, law school or in politics.
The woman did not immediately respond to a voicemail, text message or email from an AP reporter.
The allegations were first reported by Big League Politics, the news outlet that first published the yearbook image.