Rubenstein responded that the characterization was “very unfortunate.”

Senate Democratic leader Dick Saslaw of Fairfax County said the party should allow Fairfax to purchase a table.

“He hasn’t been charged with anything,” Saslaw said. “It’s their call, but it seems to me if he’s willing to pay I don’t see what the problem is.”

The allegations against Fairfax surfaced as he faced the possibility of becoming governor should Northam have resigned in a scandal that started with a racist yearbook photo from 1984. The photo on Northam’s page showed a person wearing blackface and a second person wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.

Herring faced his own scandal in February after calling on Northam to resign but then admitting under pressure of media inquiries that he had once worn blackface in college.

After apologizing for appearing in the photo, Northam resisted calls that he resign and said the next day that he was not in the photo, but that he had worn blackface at another time in 1984 during a dance contest in Texas.

The identities of the people in the photo remain unclear. Eastern Virginia Medical School hired the law firm McGuireWoods to investigate, which is continuing.