Brownlee for Virginia AG
There’s 20 days to the RPV convention in Richmond, VA and there are decisions to be made. If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few weeks, you know I’ve been weighing the decision of which candidate for Attorney General to support. Now, in the general election, I’ll be happy to support any of the 3 candidates who win the nomination, that’s no problem. However, the question before us now is which candidate will best represent our core values and will best earn the confidence of the Virginia electorate such that they will elect him to this highest of our law enforcement offices.
I believe John Brownlee is that candidate.
Make no mistake – I respect both of the other candidates deeply. Both have been wonderful Republicans, in my view, and both have been excellent public servants. Both are professional lawyers and I have no doubt they are well versed in the law. But there’s a basic lack of a critical feature in both. You see, when I take my car to the mechanic or I call an electrician to do work in my house there’s something I have to see in those people before they get a chance to work on my car or my home: they need to have actually done the job before. While both Dave Foster and Ken Cuccinelli have practiced law, neither has actually been a prosecutor. Given that the Attorney General is, basically, Virginia’s top prosecutor, don’t you think the Virginia citizenry is going to want someone in that office who’s actually done the job?
I know the Democrats will be putting a prosecutor on the ticket. This is an advantage I cannot cede to them without some hugely overriding factor getting involved. John Brownlee is the only Republican candidate with the actual experience to do the work we’re electing someone to the office to do. This reality stands regardless of any degree of conservatism or idealogy we’re looking for.
Now, there’s been some loose talk, lately, about an issue with Brownlee’s activities during his 2003 duty activation. Mr. Brownlee was with the US Attorneys at the time and certain people are trying to make something out of his continuing those duties while he was activated. They are pointing to a Missouri State Senator’s prosecution for continuing his Senatorial duties while activated to serve with a unit pulling guard duty at Gitmo. In that case, the Senator was asked to request a pass during a particularly close vote in the Missouri Senate so he could fly home and cast a vote. They contend that John Brownlee’s continued US Attorney activitives put him into the same boat.
The issue with the military code they cite – that a serving soldier may not engage in partisan political activity – does not apply in this case for a simple reason. Brownlee’s activities as a US Attorney are not partisan, they are administrative. Unless someone is suggesting (and they aren’t) that John Brownlee was abusing his office and engaging in his activities for partisan gain, then the actions he took as an attorney do not qualify under the code they cite. The Missouri Senator was, allegedly, advised by JAG attorneys in the Army to not participate in the vote and that Senator, acting instead on the advice of a friend and another lawyer no involved in the case, decided to ignore them. Brownlee’s actions were taken with the full knowledge of both JAG officers and officials from the Department of Justice. That was 5 years ago and neither of those agencies has ever said a thing to Mr. Brownlee.
I can appreciate that fellow Republicans can arrive at a different decision about whom to support in this race. I think they should avoid obsfucating the situation and should stick to the issues and the facts. Given his stances on the issues, his experience in the job, the endorsements of the law enforcement community, and the fact that he’s the only one of our candidates who’s actually been a prosecutor, John Brownlee is the best choice for the Republican nomination to the office of Virginia’s Attorney General.
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