Attorney general race heats up

Democratic candidates in Virginia have failed to win the attorney general’s office in every race since Mary Sue Terry in 1989.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, believes that trend may well change Nov. 3.

“We’re going to do everything we can to break that 20-year drought,” Kaine said.

The governor appeared at C’ville Coffee on Friday to stump alongside Del. Steve Shannon, the Democratic nominee for attorney general.

Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli, meanwhile, dropped by The Daily Progress on a recent afternoon to outline his views.

Cuccinelli, a business lawyer from Fairfax County who has served in the state Senate since 2002, said he believes more needs to be done to stop gangs such as MS-13, as well as traditional street gangs. He also wants to see continued reforms of Virginia’s mental health system. And he thinks the attorney general should have more responsibility to investigate election law and consumer protection violations.

Shannon, a former prosecutor and a member of the House of Delegates since 2004, said he believes Virginia can do more to protect young people from child sex offenders and gangs.

“It’s important that those of us in public life protect those who are the most vulnerable,” Shannon said.

Shannon and his wife, Abby, established the state’s Amber Alert system in 1999 to rescue abducted children. As a prosecutor in Fairfax County, Shannon specialized in cases involving abused children.

If elected, Shannon said, he would seek additional resources to crack down on child pornography. There are 19,000 computers in Virginia, he said, that have been identified as actively sharing child pornography. “We don’t devote sufficient resources to that right now,” he said.

Cuccinelli was the first statewide candidate to call for a special legislative session for Virginia to deal with the Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which essentially found that prosecutors must present forensic professionals as witnesses in criminal trials, rather than simply introducing a lab analysis as evidence.

“Steve Shannon called it a stunt, but 12 days later Gov. Kaine agreed with me and called for a special session,” Cuccinelli said.

Shannon, for his part, was the first statewide candidate to call for the resignation of Del. Phil Hamilton, a Republican from Newport News, who was negotiating a job and salary with an Old Dominion University educational center while he was requesting state taxpayer money to create the program. Hamilton resigned from the $40,000-a-year job and apologized.

Shannon’s call for Hamilton’s resignation was followed by calls from the other two Democrats on the Nov. 3 ticket, as well as GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell and Republican lieutenant governor candidate Bill Bolling. The only statewide candidate who has not called for Hamilton to step down is Cuccinelli.

“Ken Cuccinelli told me, basically, to mind my own business,” Shannon said. “Well, I believe public corruption is my business.”

Cuccinelli said the attorney general is, in some respects, like a judge. If he were to make a strong statement about Hamilton during the campaign, he said, it could pre-judge a case that he might have to consider as attorney general.

“That’s why I’ve been very reserved on that. I believe my opponent would have to recuse himself if this was to come across his desk,” he said.

Cuccinelli has also said that he believes Hamilton ought to be stripped of his position on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Shannon pointed out that in 2004, Cuccinelli was the only senator to vote against a measure that increased penalties for corrupt politicians.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat,” Shannon said. “If you see public corruption, you call it out.”

Cuccinelli said he has often found himself bucking the majority in the General Assembly, including on bills backed by the GOP. For example, Cuccinelli said, he broke with his party and supported eliminating Virginia’s “21-day rule” that prevented inmates from introducing new evidence after being sentenced. “I believe the first person was recently freed thanks to that bill,” he said.

Cuccinelli also pointed out that he was one of only two senators who voted against a measure to upgrade penalties for cockfighting. “I believe you have to look at the justice system as a whole,” he said. “If you punch your wife, it’s a misdemeanor. If you clock a cop, it’s a misdemeanor. If you drop two chickens in a box and bet a quarter, it’s a felony.”

Cuccinelli said he has been willing to take the positions he feels are right, despite what his party does.

“Talk about the establishment. I have always taken it on,” Cuccinelli said. “[Former Democratic Sen.] Benny Lambert once called me the Doug Wilder of the Republican Party.”