HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) – 10 on Your Side is your local election headquarters.
Saturday is the last day of in-person early voting for the June primaries on Tuesday June 20.
One the most heavily funded races is for the Democratic nominee in the 18th State Senate race.
Both candidates have each raised more than $1 million.
It’s a showdown between the Virginia Senate president pro tempore Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) and another longtime legislator, State Sen. Lionell Spruill (D-Chesapeake).
They are campaigning heavily with some powerful ads.
Spruill refused to do an interview with us. Thursday morning, Spruill agreed to do a Truth Tracker interview at 10 a.m. Friday morning. Two hours before that, an email was sent, saying they were too busy to meet with us.
A statement was sent, but a zoom interview was not entertained on their side.
We carried on with State Sen. Louise Lucas who answered every question we asked, and is unapologetic for the claims made in Spruill’s commercial against her.
Spruill’s ad begins this way: “There she goes again. Louise Lucas in her Hummer.”
That image is false.
Louise Lucas is not in the Hummer, it is not her Hummer, and the license plate has been doctored in the ad.
The ad continues: “Lucas tried to get $13 million in tax breaks for one of her businesses.”
The statement is sourced from a Virginian Pilot article from Dec. 22, 2007.
Lucas admits that claim is true.
“That is true,” she said, but she added, “now let me tell you why.”
She would go on to tell us it stemmed from her efforts to rally the community to build a conference center on the site where the newly-built Rivers Casino is.
“There were over 300 African Americans who came together to pool their money to build a conference center,” Lucas said, “so I was doing this on behalf of 300 African American who wanted ownership in something, so I was doing this on behalf of 300 African Americans.”
She explained how it quickly got out of control as they got flooded with requests to become partners in the venture.
“Everybody started investing,” Lucas said, “and then as it started to grow other people said we want to invest in it, too, because we want to be part of something that Black people own in the city of Portsmouth. … They didn’t have a stake in the city even though we are 50% minority.”
The next claim from Spruill: “An investigation found she broke the law.”
That is true.
That is true the company failed to register with the State Corporation Commission before selling interests in the project.
We pointed out to her the State Corporation Commission alleged she violated the state securities law. Was it an oversite on her part?
“Not on my part, but it might have been an oversite on my project director, that’s possible,” Lucas said. “That was not a … Louise Lucas project.”
We pointed out that the project director worked for her.
“Absolutely correct,” Lucas said, “but he didn’t have the information or knowledge or skills knowledge about that project.”
10 On Your Side asked her, do you admit you did not do this right by not crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s?
“Well, I had a project manager who was responsible for all that,” Lucas said, “and it is possible all the I’s were not dotted, and the T’s not crossed.”
The next claim in the ad: “And forced Lucas to pay back nearly $2 million.”
Lucas told us that is true, and every penny was paid back.
“It was in 2007, and all the investors got their money back with interest,” Lucas said. “It is a non-issue. … The reason I paid back the $2 million to all the investors with interest is the City Council did not approve the project.”
During the interview, Lucas didn’t run from the facts, but embraced them while noting that the goal of the project was African American ownership.
Lucas launched a commercial against Spruill, saying that “Spruill votes with Republicans, against gun safety, and Spruill bashed an anti-choice bill that Planned Parenthood attacked for dangerously chipping away at abortion access.”
Again, Spruill refused to do an interview. His campaign sent this statement.
“I am pro-choice, and I have always voted for common sense gun laws,” Spruill’s statement said. “I have been named a Reproductive Freedom Champion by REPRO Rising, a pro-choice organization, for my A+ voting record on a woman’s right to choose, and I was named a Gun Sense Candidate by Moms Demand Action for my voting record on gun control issues, including banning assault weapons and protecting victims from domestic abuse.”
We read the statement to Lucas.
“He is a liar,” Lucas said. “Spruill has been lying this whole campaign. He’s going down because of all the lies he’s told…I was endorsed by REPRO Rising Virginia not him. I was endorsed because I am 100% in favor of reproductive rights for women in this Commonwealth.”
