Cuccinelli has mature view

Virginia has two fundamentally different, yet fundamentally able, candidates running for attorney general.

Democrat Steve Shannon, a former prosecutor and current member of the House of Delegates from Northern Virginia, brings a thoughtful, earnest centrist approach to his effort to become the commonwealth’s top lawyer. We like his commitment to economic growth and business development, the major engine that powers state tax revenue and provides the public resources to buy the services that Virginians want.

Republican Ken Cuccinelli, meanwhile, has been criticized as a non-centrist and for what some see as far-right stances on the issues. Indeed, this newspaper has taken issue with several of the positions he has espoused in the state Senate.

But here’s the irony: Mr. Cuccinelli seems to have a better grasp that the attorney general’s office is not meant to be a platform for agenda-driven change; it is meant primarily to be the source of dispassionate legal counsel for the commonwealth.

Make no mistake: The attorney general’s office does have enforcement duties, along with its mandate to advise and counsel. One of these is enforcement of environmental regulation. Now, consider Mr. Cuccinelli’s approach to that duty. “My approach is fairly cold-blooded,” he told The Daily Progress. “The law is the law. I intend to enforce the law as I see it.”

We mention this example because it shows the candidate’s approach to this office, and his clear understanding that the office requires a different mindset than does service in the legislative branch. Politically, one might assume that environmental protection might not be strongly pursued under a Cuccinelli attorney generalship, but Mr. Cuccinelli adheres to the more fundamental value of full and impartial law enforcement.

It is this mature, considered and well-balanced approach that leads The Daily Progress to endorse Mr. Cuccinelli for election.

That maturity has evidenced itself in other ways during the campaign.

Events proved that Mr. Cuccinelli was on the right side of the debate last spring and summer over the U.S. Supreme Court’s Melendez decision, which could have required experts such as hard-pressed state forensics personnel to personally deliver findings in court, pulling them away from their investigative work. Mr. Cuccinelli was right that Virginia needed to update its law to address the justice issues raised by the court decision.

He is also right in saying it is imprudent for him to comment on the current investigation into potential corruption by a state legislator involving a state agency. If that case goes to court, the new attorney general will be involved; it would be unprofessional to take a stand now on a case his office might have to litigate in the future.

Again, this shows a deeper thinking into the nature of the attorney general’s office than that of his opponent.

And although we have disagreed with Mr. Cuccinelli on at least one free-press issue, in general we find him to have an open and thoughtful attitude toward government transparency. Media scrutiny renders government more responsive to the people, he correctly believes.

For these reasons and more, and with due respect to Mr. Shannon, The Daily Progress gives its endorsement to Ken Cuccinelli.