Her opposition leaves the project hanging by a thread, and left Youngkin (R) fuming. “It befuddles me,” he said at a news conference Thursday below the steps of the State Capitol, Lucas smiling down on his dismay from the portico above. Youngkin, a multimillionaire former private equity chief, had marshaled his Harvard MBA and all of his business experience, plus that of his team of high-finance advisers, only to run up against a humbling Richmond truth: A governor is not a CEO.
The General Assembly’s leaders have to be on board for the arena plan to work. Lucas, who this year became chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, has enormous power as one of the gatekeepers of the state budget. And after three decades as a Black woman climbing the ladder in the former capital of the Confederacy, Lucas felt she had been shut out of the dealmaking process.
In interviews last week, Lucas said she views the Potomac Yard arena proposal as not just a risk to the state’s finances, but a test of the newly ascendant Black lawmakers who hold the House speaker’s gavel and the chairmanships of each chamber’s money committee.
“The last thing I would want to see while African Americans have this level of leadership is for this thing to go south,” she said. “I wasn’t about to take that risk.” Describing herself as “a product of the Civil Rights movement,” Lucas said she feared that if the project failed, she and other Black leaders would “come out looking like we can’t manage well.”
Thanks to her actions, the arena is not included in the budget approved Saturday by the General Assembly before it adjourned this year’s legislative session. Youngkin has options for bringing it back to life, most likely by submitting a bill or a budget amendment when lawmakers return to Richmond on April 17 to take up measures vetoed or amended by the governor. He also could call a special legislative session specifically for the arena, but so far he has said that’s unlikely.
But the project’s failure so far is a blow to Youngkin’s bid to make a mark with what he terms the greatest economic development deal he’s ever negotiated, even dating to his time with the Carlyle Group private equity firm.
“The way the Senate has handled this opportunity I fear damages Virginia’s business environment,” he said at his Thursday news conference. “It’s a clear signal … [projects like these] will not be evaluated on their merit, but instead will be viewed through the lens of partisan parochial interests. … I believe this is a massive mistake for the commonwealth.”
Lawmakers and others familiar with the negotiations — some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of alienating Youngkin while hundreds of other pieces of legislation await his action — described an administration keeping close control over the process. Starting just before Christmas, Youngkin political adviser Matthew Moran led conference calls about the project every weekday at 8 a.m. with two cabinet secretaries, lobbyists and representatives from Alexandria, Leonsis’s firm Monumental Sports & Entertainment and other private companies involved.
Although Youngkin regularly contacted Lucas with phone calls or…
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