Virginia’s most fervent Republicans will gather in Richmond this weekend after being selected as delegates to pick a GOP candidate for the attorney general’s race.
The battle over the nomination for the state’s top lawyer is expected to draw the most attention at the 2009 Republican state convention, which kicks off Friday. For uncontested gubernatorial nominee Robert McDonnell, the two-day event will serve as more of a pep rally.
Organizers say more than 11,000 delegates, alternates and guests plan to attend.
The convention format will draw a more hard-core subset of the electorate than a primary, leading the three Republicans seeking the AG nomination to burnish their conservative bona fides.
State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli and former U.S. Attorney John Brownlee, especially, are locked in a race to win the party’s conservative base.
Cuccinelli is touting his anti-tax, anti-illegal immigration, pro-life legislative record.
“I have a track record, I have over 20,000 votes, and neither of my opponents do,” he said. “That makes a difference to a lot of people, because Republicans have been burned by people who have told them they are conservative before — and then lo and behold, — they weren’t really that conservative.”
Brownlee, appointed by President George W. Bush to head the federal prosecutor’s office for Virginia’s Western District, has also espoused conservative positions on a number of issues during the race. He supports mandating the E-Verify system for all employers in Virginia, which would force them to check their workers’ immigration status against a federal database.
Brownlee campaign manager Dave Johnson said his candidate’s experience was more relevant to the attorney general’s job.
“This isn’t a legislator’s job, this is a prosecutor’s job,” Johnson said.
Former Arlington County School Board Chairman Dave Foster appears to be staking out a position as a pragmatist, holding an endorsement from former Rep. Tom Davis, a centrist Republican.
As if to illustrate that point, Foster, who calls himself a “common-sense conservative” also wants to implement E-Verify, but — at least at first — only for state agencies.
“I think I am different” from Cuccinelli and Brownlee, he said. “I understand that the top issue this year is going to be the economy, particularly creating jobs for Virginians.”
