State Sen. Bryce E. Reeves is attacking state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, a rival in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor, for supporting a gay judge in 2013.
The mailer prompted popular conservative blogger Jim Hoeft of Hampton Roads to withdraw his support for Reeves.
The mailer says, “If you support President Trump you can’t support Jill Vogel.”
It says Vogel “voted to approve the first openly gay judge in Virginia” and is the “only Republican to vote for special rights for gays and transgenders.” The mailer also attacks Vogel, a lawyer from Fauquier County, on other issues.
The judge Reeves refers to in the mailer is Judge Tracy W.J. Thorne-Begland of Richmond General District Court.
Reeves, an insurance agent from Spotsylvania County, trails Vogel in fundraising in the contentious campaign ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. He alleged that she and her husband are behind an anonymous email sent to some of his backers alleging he had an affair with a campaign aide.
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The email is the subject of a pending defamation claim in Stafford County Circuit Court. The Vogels have denied involvement.
A third candidate, Del. Glenn R. Davis Jr. of Virginia Beach, has campaigned on tax reform and job growth.
Eight Republicans, including Vogel, joined 20 Democrats in the Senate in voting to elect Thorne-Begland to a full six-year term in 2013. Twelve Republicans, including Reeves, didn’t vote.
Hoeft published a blog post on the website Bearing Drift on Wednesday saying Reeves lost his vote:
“Reeves, who up until about ten minutes ago was going to be the candidate I was going to endorse and vote for, just made a tremendously egregious mistake: he chose to play a game of identity politics that specifically limits opportunity (legitimate opportunity — not silly bathroom issues) to Americans who just want to serve their commonwealth.
“In my view, that is an automatic disqualifier to be the governor’s stand-in and to preside over our Senate.”
Said Vogel campaign manager Pat Trueman: “Jill Vogel thinks discrimination is wrong.”
Vogel did do a mailer in August related to bathrooms that read, “Do you want Barack Obama to set transgender bathroom policies at your children’s school?”
Davis said he was disappointed in the “emotional voodoo” of the Reeves mailer.
“What we don’t do as Republicans is demean our colleagues,” Davis said in a Facebook video. “We’re all Republicans. We’re all professionals. We’re all colleagues. If we want to differ on policy, that’s one thing, and that’s expected. But it’s stuff like this that turns people off to politics, turns people off to serving in office, and honestly it turns a lot of Republicans off.”
Davis was not yet in the legislature at the time of the 2013 vote on Thorne-Begland.
“Bryce is proud to be the conservative choice for Lt. Governor,” Reeves communications director Samantha Azzarelli said in an email after being asked about the mailer. She also noted that the conservative Family Foundation in its 2012-13 scorecard supported a “no” vote on Thorne-Begland’s election.
Thorne-Begland is a former Navy flight officer and served as the city of Richmond’s chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney.
In May 2012, the GOP-led House of Delegates voted down Thorne-Begland’s nomination to the General District Court bench.
A month later, Richmond circuit judges appointed Thorne-Begland to an interim term on the General District Court bench.