Article snippet: Democrats who took uncompromising stands against racism and sexual harassment and assault find themselves questioning just how far their idealism goes as Virginia’s top three officeholders struggle to weather political storms that threaten their careers. After a racist photo showed up on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook from 1984, party leaders were quick to call for his resignation. Those calls only intensified after Northam denied he was in the photo, which showed a man in blackface next to a man in a Ku Klux Klan hood, while acknowledging that he had dressed in blackface at a different party. But they have markedly quieter about the scandals surrounding the two Democrats in line to succeed Northan, Lieutenant Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring. If all three quit, Virginia’s next governor would be House Speaker Kirk Cox — a Republican. Fairfax faces allegations of sexual assault by a Stanford professor, whose story in some ways mirrors and in some ways are even more severe than those leveled against Supreme Court Justice MORE. A second woman on Friday evening publicly accused Fairfax of raping her in 2000. Democrats sided almost unanimously with Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Kavanaugh of assault, an accusation that nearly toppled his nomination. Herring, days after calling for Northam’s resignation, admitted he too had worn blackface to a party in 1980. The competing scandals pit two foundational cornerst... Link to the full article to read more