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Shannon talks corruption, child safety
Attorney general candidate Del. Steve Shannon (D-35th) is staking his ability to win this fall in the toughest environment for Democrats since 2004 on the basis that Virginia voters tend to view the AG office differently than governor or lieutenant governor posts.
"The biggest thing I have going for me is the fact that I have been in public safety, I have been a prosecutor. I know how to put programs together, like Virginia's first Amber Alert program, and I am focused on keeping Virginians safe," said Shannon during an interview with Times editors and reporters.
While Republican nominee state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th) has a reputation for being a down-the-line conservative in the General Assembly's upper chamber, the senator from western Fairfax County poses a significant threat to Shannon in Northern Virginia.
Cuccinelli won re-election in 2007, though by little more than 100 votes, in a year when two other Fairfax Republicans were swept out of office and Democrats regained control of the Senate. The entire Republican ticket currently holds substantial leads against the statewide Democratic candidates.
Shannon routinely hits Cuccinelli for being a "partisan ideologue" and plans to introduce himself to voters through television ads during the next month-and-a-half.
Shannon said he plans to run the attorney general's office as an apolitical law enforcement branch of government. A difference he highlighted between himself and Cuccinelli is how they view the aftermath of the Del. Phil Hamilton (R-93rd) affair.
All three Democratic candidates for statewide office and the other two Republican candidates called on Hamilton, who represents Newport News and James City County in General Assembly, to resign after reports indicated he asked for a $40,000-a-year part-time job at a new Old Dominion University center if he secured state funding for it.
Cuccinelli did not, opting to let voters of the 93rd district have their say at the polls instead.
Shannon chastised him for that stance, saying, "How you can say that's an issue for the voters to decide is beyond me. The voters elect us to deal with issues of public corruption. Nobody votes on election day on public corruption. 'Do you think public corruption occurred? Yes or No?' That's a preposterous assertion but it's a key difference with regard to how we view the office."
Though he spent a considerable amount of time discussing Hamilton, Shannon's campaign centerpiece is child safety, particularly related to the Internet. He wants more officers and money for state police combating child pornography and tracking down missing and exploited children in particular.
"But literally what they're doing, just due to a lack of resources, is they're prioritizing which kids they're going to try to find on any given day. That's totally unacceptable to me," he said, later stating that as attorney general, he would personally prosecute accused sex offenders in child cases.
During his time representing Vienna, Oakton and parts of Fairfax in the General Assembly, Shannon introduced 99 bills. Thirty-five were signed into law, either on their own or as parts of other bills; 57 were rejected and seven were introduced one year but continued to a following year.
Nearly half of his successful bills (16) addressed sexual abuse or victims of other crimes while three bills assessed harsher penalties for criminal activity, such as making it a felony instead of a misdemeanor for manufacturing or selling drugs.
A self-described "centrist," Shannon had a near 50-percent rate in his first four years as a legislator, passing 28 bills while 29 failed. But once he announced his bid for attorney general in 2008, his numbers in the Republican-controlled House tanked as he managed to pass only four out of 23 bills.
"It's just life. But one of the good things is that I found when you've got a good idea, it's not unusual for somebody the following year to take the bill under their own name and try to make it happen," said Shannon earlier this year.
None of the legislation sponsored by Shannon and signed into law by either governors Mark Warner (D) or Tim Kaine (D) received significant opposition. Shannon's bills that did not pass the General Assembly usually died in committee instead of on the House floor.
Two of the bills introduced by Shannon that were signed into law dealt with transportation but both were localized to Fairfax. The most significant part of Shannon's transportation record shows support for the 2007 bill that assessed so-called "abusive driver fees" and allowed non-elected regional bodies to raise and levy taxes in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Citizen backlash to the abusive driver fees forced a repeal of the law in 2008 and the state Supreme Court struck down the taxing authorities as unconstitutional.
Shannon explained he voted in favor of it after the attorney general's office, then led by Republican Bob McDonnell, said it was constitutional. Cuccinelli voted against the final bill after supporting an original draft.
"I respect the [Supreme Court's] decision. They made it very clear in a unanimous decision that a bill Bob McDonnell tried to put together that many of us supported was not constitutional. But what I appreciate is that they gave an explanation in some detail so that when the next proposal is being crafted, we can work around that," said Shannon.
As a delegate, Shannon tended to steer away from social issues with his own legislation, though he had a more liberal voting record on social bills introduced by other members.
That is in stark contrast with Cuccinelli.
For instance, Shannon supports abortion rights and Cuccinelli does not. Shannon also cosponsored a bill this year that would have made made it illegal for state agencies to discriminate against someone because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. Cuccinelli did not sign on in the Senate and the bill died in committee.
Cuccinelli and Shannon both voted in favor the state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2006 that banned the commonwealth from recognizing same-sex marriages or civil unions.
However, Shannon attached his name to a bill signed by Gov. Kaine this year that banned smoking inside certain public establishments. Though the bill received bipartisan support, most of the opposition came from conservatives, including Cuccinelli.
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