Virginia Lawyers Weekly

VIRGINIA BEACH—Ken Cuccinelli and Steve Shannon share many similarities.

Both represent Northern Virginia in the General Assembly.

In fact, Cuccinelli’s Senate district overlaps Shannon’s House district in three precincts.

Both are making their first statewide run for office at a young age – Cuccinelli is 40, Shannon 38.

Both attended Gonzaga High School, overlapping there by one year.

Both are Wahoos. Cuccinelli earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia; Shannon attended the U.Va. law school.

Both are Roman Catholics.

Both profess that they are friends.

Both want to be attorney general of Virginia.

And that’s where the similarities may end. Republican Cuccinelli and Democrat Shannon met in Virginia Beach June 20 for the first debate between the candidates for attorney general. The event was sponsored by the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar as part of the VSB’s Annual Meeting.

In the debate, the candidates acknowledged that they have very different personalities that have played out in their years in the Assembly – Cuccinelli has been a Senator since 2002; Shannon was first elected to the House the following year.

Cuccinelli acknowledged that Shannon “makes more friends than I do.” He said that he has not been afraid to spar with fellow Republicans “when I think they’re wrong.”

But his aggressive style will be an asset “if Virginia wants a fighter for attorney general,” he said, adding that “you will always know where I stand” on an issue.

Shannon presented himself as “a bipartisan legislator. I am not an ideological legislator.”

He added, “That allows me to reach across party lines and bring people together to take on big issues and to unify people.”

He got into politics, he said, when his wife Abby heard about the movement to establish an Amber Alert system, a child-protection program named for a Texas girl who was abducted and killed. He worked for a big downtown DC law firm, then spent several years prosecuting child-victim cases. He is presently counsel to Odin, Feldman & Pittleman in Fairfax.

Cuccinelli worked for Oblon, Spivak before founding his own business-litigation firm in Fairfax six years ago. He noted that as a lawyer, he had worked with lawyers from the AG’s office on mental health issues. And he had litigated against the AG’s office, learning from “the tip of the spear” how the office handles cases.

Shannon touted his experience as a prosecutor, observing that the AG is the “chief law enforcement officer” in Virginia, handling all appeals from commonwealth’s attorneys and having original jurisdiction in some criminal matters.

Both men have constituents who have had to deal with MS-13, one of the most violent gangs that operates in their districts. And both agreed that the gang problem must be dealt with head-on.

On other issues, though, the two presented a very different view of what the office should do.

Answering a question about whether the commonwealth should give full faith and credit to same-sex marriages from other states, Shannon said that as AG, he “would enforce the law.”

He added that it is not the role of the AG “to be a policy-maker.” The legislature and the governor should make Virginia’s policy.
The citizens of Virginia voted to pass the marriage amendment in 2006 and “the people have concluded that civil unions are not permissible” here.

Cuccinelli noted that the same-sex marriage issue “is going to be a question the next attorney general is almost certain to handle.”

He vowed, “I absolutely intend to defend our marriage amendment.”

And he disagreed with Shannon’s assessment of the job. Cuccinelli said that the attorney general’s legislative agenda was the third-most important each year on Capitol Hill, behind that of the governor and the speaker of the House.

Among the proposals Cuccinelli advocates: expanded jurisdiction for the Court of Appeals of Virginia (which currently hears only administrative, criminal and domestic relations appeals).

Shannon disagreed with the idea, offering this rejoinder: “The role of the attorney general is not to utilize the position to promote a political agenda, but to work with the governor and legislature upon request.”

Cuccinelli also vowed to work to make the attorney general’s office the unified point of contact for consumer protection, so that citizens would not be “wandering around state government, wondering where to go, going from office to office” for an answer.

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