Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Dave Foster, a Washington lawyer and former Arlington School Board chairman, has formally joined what is an increasingly crowded field for the Republican nomination for Virginia attorney general.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, and former U.S. Attorney John Brownlee of Roanoke had announced their candidacies earlier. The nominee will be chosen in May at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Foster, a partner in the Washington office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, kicked off his campaign last week in Richmond and held rallies in Charlottesville, the Shenandoah Valley, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Martinsville and Danville.

He says he is a non-ideological conservative who will appeal to Northern Virginia, where Republicans have been drubbed in recent statewide elections, as well as other areas of the state. He pointed to his two school board terms in what is regarded as among the state’s most liberal and Democratic localities as proof of his appeal.

He noted that the party lost Virginia in a presidential election for the first time since 1964 and surrendered a second U.S. Senate seat and three congressional seats to Democrats in the November election.

“As we head into next year’s critical statewide elections, we need a nominee for attorney general with proven electability, top-flight legal qualifications and a set of new common-sense conservative solutions,” he said in a statement announcing his candidacy.

Foster is well behind Cuccinelli and Brownlee in the early race for campaign money but says he hopes to raise $500,000 by the convention. He also faces a Dec. 1 deadline to collect 4,000 signatures to get on the Republican ballot.

A 1975 graduate of the University of Virginia, Foster worked for three years as legislative director for Republican 4th District Rep. Robert W. Daniel Jr. before returning to U.Va. for his law degree.

At Fulbright & Jaworski, he is a co-chairman of the firm’s litigation practice group for antitrust and trade regulation matters. He says he has extensive experience with complex litigation and investigations involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies.

Foster traces his family roots to the mid-1600s, when Patrick Napier, an apprentice surgeon in the Scottish army, immigrated to this country after Oliver Cromwell took control of Scotland. His forebears settled in Albemarle County, where he has restored a cabin on a family farm.

He and Martha, his wife of 27 years, have a son and a daughter who are attending Virginia colleges.

The Republican contest for attorney general likely will be the party’s only statewide nomination fight. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling chose to seek a second term rather than challenge Attorney General Bob McDonnell for the nomination for governor.

Two Democrats are expected to contend for their party’s nomination for AG: Del. Steve Shannon from Fairfax, a former county prosecutor who is special counsel as a litigator in the firm of Odin, Feldman & Pittleman, and Roanoke trial lawyer John P. Fishwick Jr., a partner in the firm of Lichtenstein Fishwick & Johnson PLC.

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