A resolution to censure state Sen. Amanda Chase moved forward Tuesday, and the embattled Republican from Chesterfield County also was stripped of her last committee assignment, although not without objections.
Chase left the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus in 2019 after Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, was re-elected as the Senate party leader. At the time, she said that Norment had allowed tax increases and expanded Medicaid and didn’t live up to Republican values. In 2020, Chase lost her seniority privileges and was stripped of three committee assignments, keeping only her assignment to the low-profile Local Government committee. Tuesday, Chase was the only “no” vote against approving the Senate committee assignments.
In a speech Tuesday, Chase claimed that she had lost her remaining committee assignment because she refused to pay $10,000 in annual caucus dues in 2020. “This is extortion,” she said, adding that her staff had been “bullied” as a result and that she had been “put over in the corner, like a scolded child.”
