Virginia Lawyers Weekly

ROANOKE—Each of the three lawyers vying for the GOP nomination for attorney general hopes to persuade fellow Republicans he can be the most electable while remaining the most conservative.

The terms of the contest emerged as Ken Cuccinelli, John Brownlee and Dave Foster took the stage for a formal debate before several hundred party faithful in Roanoke last week.

Foster, a former Arlington School Board chair, tweaked Brownlee for his lack of prior political experience and noted that Cuccinelli’s victory margins as a state senator have become “smaller and smaller.” A former federal prosecutor, Brownlee said he had spent his professional life “in the courtroom, fighting for justice.” Cuccinelli boasted of winning his Senate contests “in the tough part of Virginia, in Northern Virginia, without sacrificing my principles.”

Foster, who practices in antitrust and government regulation law with Fulbright & Jaworski, claimed his legal experience perfectly suited him for the attorney general job. “I’m the only one who has spent three decades doing those things – civil law disputes, criminal law disputes, constitutional law disputes.”

Brownlee claimed his prosecutorial experience was the better fit: “I’m the only one who has run a law firm just like the attorney general’s office,” he said.

Cuccinelli asserted that his legislative and campaign record gave him the edge, and repeatedly pointed to his victories in districts that otherwise vote Democratic. “I can bring tens of thousands of votes to this race that will not otherwise show up,” he said.

Brownlee unexpectedly lashed out at the judicial selection process in Virginia to explain his ill-fated bid for the federal bench.

Asked about the second-tier ranking he received from a Virginia State Bar panel in 2007, Brownlee claimed he wore the slight as “almost a badge of honor.”

“As you know,” he said, “the judicial nominations committee of the Virginia State Bar is one of the most liberal, Democratic-controlled organizations in the Commonwealth.” He described the panel’s chair, Joseph A. Condo, as a “liberal, Democrat, activist divorce lawyer from Vienna.”

“I have nothing against Vienna,” Brownlee said, “but the rest of it – I have a problem.”

Brownlee sought an Eastern District federal judgeship. President Bush nominated Anthony J. Trenga, whom Brownlee claimed had a record of contributions to Democrats. “This process was skewed toward getting a liberal judge, and they got one,” Brownlee said. “They should be very happy.”

Brownlee also set himself apart from the other candidates with a comment about how he would judge the constitutionality of a law passed by the General Assembly. While Cuccinelli and Foster pledged to apply a strict constitutional test, without regard to personal feeling, Brownlee said he would add a “moral test” to the equation.

“As attorney general, I would represent the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia. So I would add that second layer, that second tier,” he said.

Brownlee’s moral filter is “an entirely new conception of the AG’s role in Virginia” commented Virginia Commonwealth University political science professor Robert Holsworth on his blog, Virginia Tomorrow. Holsworth, who attended the debate, suggested that Brownlee’s comment leaves him open to criticism often aimed at liberals – that he would impose personal views in place of a strict interpretation of constitutional language.

The winner of the GOP nomination likely will face Del. Steve Shannon, D-Fairfax, in the November general election. Shannon’s name went largely unmentioned as the Republican contenders sought their own party’s support.

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