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Since August, Candidates Have Shifted Tactics on Confederate Monuments

Steve Helber
/
AP

 

If you had asked Virginians a year ago what topics would dominate the race for Governor, Confederate monuments might not have topped the list. But a rally in Charlottesville changed everything. Now, Confederate monuments have become a flashpoint in the race for Virginia’s next Governor.

 

In August, a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville turned violent. By the end of that weekend three had died and the city was in national and international headlines. 

 

Immediately, the Republican and Democratic candidates for Governor were drawn into a thorny conversation on race, statues and Virginia’s Confederate history. 

 

Democrat Ralph Northam released a written statement saying he’d support localities that choose to remove them.

 

“I believe these Confederate statues belong in a museum, Northam said during an interview on WFIR. “And I will do everything that I can that I have authority to do to remove the statues at the state level and I also will be a vocal advocate for their removal elsewhere.”

 

Republican Ed Gillespie disagreed. During a forum hosted by the NAACP in early September he condemned white supremacy, but said Confederate Monuments should stay.

 

“I think that we do need to teach about the objects of the statues. We don’t need to glorify them, we need to educate about them,” said Gillespie. 

 

Now, two months later, the reality of a tight election day is bearing down on both candidates. 

 

The Gillespie campaign began running an ad and sending mailers around the Confederate Monument issue.

 

“For Governor there’s a clear choice. Ralph Northam wants to take down Virginia’s Civil War monuments,” says a deep voice in the commercial. 

 

Then Gillespie comes on the screen — “I’m for keeping ‘em up," he says.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpKbQULZZ0

 

 

Northam’s tone has also shifted. In October, after a poll from the Richmond Times Dispatch revealed more than half of Richmond area residents are opposed to taking down the statues, Northam relied on a high profile surrogate to chime in.

 

“Does anybody really believe that Ralph spent his whole life in the Old Dominion and then he’s going to run for Governor and suddenly try to erase Virginia’s history?!” cried Barack Obama during a rally in Richmond. 

 

Obama lent his star power to the Democratic candidate, and during the rally he opted to bring up Confederate history.

“And let me just say something about history,” Obama said. “You know Ralph believes that if we’re going to talk about our history than we should do it in a way that heals.”

 

A few days after the rally, a small group gathered at Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument — to yell. 

 

Goad Gatsby organized the event. While it was meant to be tongue in cheek, he says, it stems from the very real feeling that yelling is all he can do. 

 

State law prohibits local governments from messing with war memorials. And until that law is clarified, or changed, Virginia’s Confederate monuments will stay right where they are. 

 

“It’s just a shame Charlottesville has spent all this time litigating just so they can control their own statue,” Gatsby said. “And it’s just so frustrating that citizens as well as their own locality governments can’t control their own destiny.”

 

Gillespie and Northam have both said the decision on Confederate statues should ultimately be up to each community. 

 

Whoever wins will get the chance to stand behind that position next legislative session, when the issue of local control of monuments is sure to come up. 

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association