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Cuccinelli aims for middle line in AG's race
State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th) is one of the most conservative members of the state Senate, but you wouldn't know it from his platform in the race for attorney general.
Cuccinelli spoke Sept. 25 with Times Community Newspapers and focused his comments on his experience and on public safety, but also on the attorney general's role as the impartial upholder of the law.
Public safety
The number one issue for the attorney general is the expansion and increased aggression of gangs, Cuccinelli said.
The attorney general's office, he said, needs to do more to coordinate regional efforts to bring down the gangs. In addition, the attorney general can shift priorities to put more staff attorneys to work on prosecution. Currently, he said, the AG's office has 18 lawyers who handle appeals and only 12 who prosecute.
School resource officers are another important factor in the war on gangs and drugs, he said. A police officer based in a public school provides law enforcement agencies with “someone who is on the ground” who can both observe teens in their own setting and can also help to steer younger children in the right direction.
In a time of budget cuts, Cuccinelli said school resource officers should be prioritized -- in some areas.
“Those are folks I would want to keep, especially in areas where we have gang and drug activity in high schools,” he said.
In some school districts, crime among youth isn't a serious problem and school officers may need to be cut in those areas, he said. But he pointed out the state's $12 million public television subsidy and the $9 million saved by closing rest stops on the interstates.
“I would certainly cut there to keep school resource officers,” he said.
Corruption
Over the summer, news broke that Newport News Del. Phil Hamilton (R-93rd) had secured funding for a new program at Old Dominion University and then took a job working for the program.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle were quick to denounce Hamilton and call for his resignation. Cuccinelli, however, did not.
Fairfax Del. Steve Shannon, the Democrat candidate for attorney general, pounced on Cuccinelli for the omission. On Friday, Cuccinelli shot back that Shannon doesn't understand the job he is running for.
An ethics panel is currently investigating Hamilton and Cuccinelli explained that the panel can either declare him innocent, turn the matter over to the General Assembly for a civil penalty, or turn the matter over to the attorney general for a further investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
In the latter case, the attorney general acts as a judge or a grand jury, investigating the charges and deciding whether Hamilton should be prosecuted, Cuccinelli said. The candidate said that as the men who may end up judging the case, he and Shannon should not be throwing out opinions about it ahead of time.
“I would have sacrificed my ability to do the job I'm running for,” Cuccinelli said. “All I'm trying to do is have respect for the office I'm running for.”
The job
“Much of what the attorney general's office does I would call boring but necessary,” Cuccinelli said. “Eighty-five to 90 percent of what goes on in the attorney general's office won't change much, no matter who wins the office.”
Most of the job, Cuccinelli said, involves advising state agency officials on employment law and other minutia that he admitted is not very interesting to voters.
So why elect him over his opponent?
“Experience,” Cuccinelli said. “I've been on the Courts of Justice committee in the Senate for seven years. I have been involved in every single change to our criminal justice system for seven years.”
Cuccinelli repeatedly stressed his own experience and dedication to reading case law and court rulings.
“I just have more knowledge of all these areas than he does,” Cuccinelli said, indicating at several points that Shannon had not read the laws and cases he has commented on.
Partisanship
The attorney general is the lawyer for the state but also for the governor and the General Assembly and that can make for an interesting situation if the attorney general is of a different political ideology than the officials he represents.
Cuccinelli is known for his staunch opposition to abortion and his conservative position on other social issues.
Asked whether he can defend laws he feels are immoral, Cuccinelli said yes.
“Immorality really doesn't have anything to do with it,” he said. “I'll go back to my friends in the legislature and try to change it, but while it's on the books, I'll enforce it. The Constitution comes first.”
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