PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — In the first stop of what Democrats call the Virginia Families First tour, local lawmakers in a Downtown Portsmouth news conference Monday presented a full-court press.

Senator Mamie Locke is the chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

“We delivered a budget that undid giveaways to the wealthy and the governor’s use of one-time funds,” Locke said. “We made historic investments in K-12, higher education, and mental health. The governor simply needs to sign the budget and stop threatening an unprecedented budget veto.”

Days earlier at a tour stop of his own in Chesapeake, Gov. Glenn Youngkin told a friendly crowd the Commonwealth has the funds to meet a wide variety of needs.

“We can fund teacher salaries and law enforcement and behavioral health,” Youngkin said. “There’s plenty of money in the system to accomplish an and moment not an or moment.”

From her home court, Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas of Portsmouth evaluated the governor’s budget negotiations game.

“The governor has about as much aptitude in politics — I won’t name the other person,” Lucas said. “No, he is not very smart when it comes to politics.

“The budget package on the governor’s desk says yes to a 3% teacher pay raise, but no to funding a $2 billion arena in Northern Virginia.

Since the original broadcast of this story, the arena deal was declared dead by authorities in Alexandria and Washington D.C.

“I think that with all of the information that you have read and that you’ve heard,” Lucas said, “there is no deal and that the arena bill is dead. Thank you. Nothing more.”

But there is more. Youngkin in Chesapeake said the Democrat-led budget that calls for a $2.6 billion tax increase is backward.

“It’s totally backwards; it’s totally wrong and I’m going to work to make sure that does happen to Virginians,” he said.

Locke took another shot.

“The main question that you should be asking the governor is what’s backward,” Locke said. “What’s more backwards than what he is doing around the Commonwealth and continuing to campaign to be what we don’t know? Are the Senate and the House are the responsible adults in the room?”