Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D) said on Oct. 26 that she will not resign and will plead not guilty to the federal drug charges unsealed against her last week.
“Absolutely not,” Lucas told reporters in Richmond when asked whether she would step down.
Asked whether she plans to plead not guilty, she said, “Absolutely, I am not guilty.”
Lucas, 82, a Democrat from Portsmouth, spoke to reporters after a meeting of the General Assembly’s Joint Subcommittee on Tax Policy. She has served in the state Senate since 1992.
She is the chamber’s president pro tempore, presiding in the lieutenant governor’s absence, and chairs the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, through which all legislation with a budget impact must pass….