By Katharine Jackson

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – Virginia’s controversial governor Ralph Northam capped a week of political chaos caused by racist scandals on Friday by announcing he would stay in office. Meanwhile, a second allegation of sexual assault has been made against his party colleague, who was set to succeed him.

Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax denied both allegations, calling them a “coordinated smear campaign.” He said the most recent allegation that he raped a fellow student at Duke University in 2000 was “provably false” and said he would not resign.

Fairfax, 39, insisted earlier this week that his encounter with a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Boston hotel 14 years ago was entirely consensual.

But Friday’s accusation sparked a wave of calls for resignation – and even threats of impeachment – against the once-promising young politician who just a few days ago was considered Northam’s successor and seemed poised to become the second African-American governor in Virginia’s history.

Northam’s second in line, 57-year-old Attorney General Mark Herring, came under fire this week when he admitted that, like Northam, he once dyed his face dark to imitate a black artist – a practice widely considered racist.

The possibility that all three of Virginia’s top executives will have to resign has Democrats fearing they could lose the governorship to the next Republican speaker of the House of Representatives in line for the position, and it is testing Democrats’ resolve to show zero tolerance for sexual misconduct and racial bigotry.

It also raises concerns among Democrats that political disunity in Virginia, a key swing state in the presidential election, could push the state back into Republican hands in the 2020 White House election.

The furor began with the revelation last Friday that Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page contained a racist photo, followed by his admission and apology for dressing up as pop star Michael Jackson that year, wearing blackface makeup.

After a week of living in virtual isolation and facing increasing pressure to resign, Northam indicated in an email to state employees on Friday that he intends to keep his post.

“You have put your trust in me to move Virginia forward – and that is what I intend to do,” Northam said.

Increasing pressure

In a separate statement on the latest allegations against him, Fairfax said he had “never forced himself on anyone” and called for a “full investigation into these unfounded and false allegations”.

“I will clear my good name and I have nothing to hide,” Fairfax wrote, declaring, “I will not resign.”

But the latest rape allegation sparked a flood of calls for Fairfax to resign, including from all Democrats in the state House and Senate, the Legislative Black Caucus, former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe, and Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner (both Democrats).

A member of the state House of Representatives, Democrat Patrick Hope, said on Twitter that he intends to initiate impeachment proceedings against Fairfax on Monday if he does not resign.

The woman who made the new allegation, identified by the nickname Meredith Watson, said she was coming forward “reluctantly because she is filled with a strong sense of civic duty and believes that persons seeking or holding public office should be of the highest character,” according to a statement from the law firm representing her.

New Jersey-based law firm Smith Mullin said the alleged assault occurred in 2000. Watson “is not seeking financial damages” and her lawyers informed Fairfax through his lawyers “that Ms. Watson hopes he will resign from public office,” the firm said in a statement.

Smith Mullin’s statement said the alleged attack on Watson was “intentional and aggressive,” but said Fairfax and Watson “were friends but never dated or had a romantic relationship.”

The law firm said it has emails, Facebook messages and statements showing that Watson shared her account of events immediately after the alleged rape.

Fairfax’s first accuser, Vanessa Tyson, a scholar at Stanford University, alleged that Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in a hotel room during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

She came forward days after a conservative website published a racist photo on Northam’s 1984 yearbook page showing one person with blackface and another wearing a white Ku Klux Klan robe. Northam had initially acknowledged that he was one of the people depicted in the photo, but later said that was not the case.

In an effort to reconcile relations with Virginia’s African-American population, Northam met privately on Friday with National Black Farmers Association President and founder John Boyd Jr. in Richmond, the state capital. Boyd told Reuters the two men prayed together and “asked for forgiveness.”

Boyd, whose group says it represents 109,000 farmers across the country, tweeted that he was urging the governor not to resign.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson in Richmond, Virginia; additional reporting by Gary Robertson in Richmond, Jonathan Allen in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler)