AG bloggers’ conference call

Attorney General Bob McDonnell held a conference call this afternoon with bloggers and at least one member of the main stream media. The main purpose of the call was to give the AG the opportunity to discuss the accomplishments of his office, the third largest law firm in Virginia, over the past year and to look towards what they have on tap for the upcoming General Assembly session.

McDonnell opened his comments by saying that “we’re still working for the citizens for Virginia.” He pointed to the success of his office in getting proposed legislation passed: some 57 of 65 proposed bills have become law, many of them in the areas of Homeland Security, eminent domain, sexual predators and internet crimes. McDonnell said that he ran on seven major issues in 2005 and that he has gotten all of them done. He spoke of some of the high-profile cases that he has been involved with.

The AG said that he gets along well with Governor Tim Kaine’s administration. Despite their differences, he said they work well together in the day-to-day running of government. He pointed to the Executive Order issued by Kaine as one such item where they have worked in concert. For the upcoming session, the AG’s agenda will include mental health reforms, immigration reforms, and reforms in Homeland Security. The agenda is still being formulated and McDonnell expects to have 25-30 proposals that will be announced in a press conference in a week or so.

On the political side, McDonnell said that he campaigned quite a bit for other candidates this year, doing some 100 events in five months. He expects the Republicans in the Senate to be a cohesive group and that they will be cooperating with their House counterparts this year. He mentioned his involvement in brokering the transportation bill last year.

Finally, McDonnell discussed how he has urged his staff to get involved in the community, specifically noting that such involvement should be not just the bar associations but benevolent organizations as well. He pointed to the first annual statewide Legal Food Frenzy in which nearly 700,000 pounds of food was donated to Virginia Food Banks. The goal for this event for 2008 is 1 million pounds. He also mentioned the partnership his office has with a homeless shelter in Richmond, and the wall of honor established to commemorate Virginians who have lost their lives in the war on terror.

After making his opening statement, McDonnell took questions.

Gun control – The question asked what the AG expects will come out of the GA this year on this issue. The AG responded that the Executive Order (mentioned above) will be incorporated into the law. He also spoke about his opinion and that of his predecessors on the right of college boards of visitors to restrict handguns on campus. He said he expects there will be some discussion on whether to allow faculty/administrators on campuses to be armed. He is not anticipating any major shifts in gun legislation and that the overall issues will surround mental health.

Moran’s bill on unsafe toys – This question related to whether the AG’s office should be involved in prosecuting those who sell unsafe toys, especially when there are bigger issues like immigration to deal with. The AG said that his office is charged with consumer protection and consumer advocacy, so he did not think it was improper to include that responsibility. While he has not read the proposed legislation, McDonnell joked that he thought that perhaps Moran was expanding the role of the AG’s office in anticipation of a run for AG in 2009, but then quickly said he understood Moran had aspirations for higher office. On the issue of immigration, the AG pointedly said that Moran and his Democratic colleagues have been invisible on this issue, particularly the issue of “criminal illegal aliens.” He spoke about trying to convince the governor to sign 287g agreements, since the Federal government has dropped the ball. He mentioned that the crime commission is going to try to convince the governor to do so.

Sexual predator email registrations – The question was whether there have been any successful prosecutions directly attributable to the legislation to require sexual predators to register their email addresses. McDonnell said that since the registration was just effective July 1, it is too soon to tell. He plans to evaluate this very soon and will issue a report. He acknowledged that such registrations are not foolproof but provide another tool, since it is also a crime to falsify information given to the State Police.

Death penalty – The question here was two-fold: first, what about the New Jersey decision to prohibit the death penalty, and second, how well has Kaine carried out the death penalty. The AG reiterated his support of the death penalty but, surprisingly, was not familiar with the NJ decision. He expects that there will be bills – from both Republicans and Democrats – to eliminate the death penalty in the upcoming GA session. He said that Kaine has done what he said he was going to do with the death penalty.

Deeds or Moran, Allen – I asked the AG which of these he would prefer to face. He said he wants to go up against the Democrats’ best guy and was unwilling to say which of these two that might be. He also mentioned that it was going to be fun to watch the Democrats spend a lot of money in a primary, something that hasn’t happened on the Democratic side since 1985. In a followup, I asked about the possibility of George Allen running for governor against him. McDonnell said he has “enormous respect” for Allen and considers him the best governor in his lifetime. He reiterated that his run for the governor’s mansion in 2009 is about staying positive and letting people know why he’s the best guy.

Senate race – The questioner expressed concern about Jim Gilmore, saying “is Gilmore all we have?” Further, the questioner wanted to know how the AG expects the race to play out. McDonnell said that he is still hearing other names, including, of course, Bob Marshall. In any event, he said this race is not about a run for governor but about who is best qualified to serve in the Senate. In what could be considered a blueprint for the Republican run against Mark Warner, McDonnell said that Warner has never had to defend his record as governor and pointed out two vetoes that Warner did during his term: a bill that would have barred in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, and a bill that would have eliminated the “death tax.” He expects that the race will be competitive and reminded us that Gilmore chaired the commission on Homeland Security, recommendations of which have been adopted.

*****

You may wonder why I, as a Democrat, would want to participate in a call such as this. A couple of reasons. First, the AG’s office (like the governor and the LG) have to represent all Virginians. Sometimes, we can get so partisan about things that we forget this. Second, Bob McDonnell is going to be a player in our political process for some time, and, I think, he’ll be governor one day in this state (although not in 2009 🙂 ) While so much of politics is scripted, calls such as these do give us some insight into the man.

Finally, although I disagree with him on most issues, I happen to like Bob McDonnell and have since I first met him a long time ago at a fundraiser for a friend of mine (nonpartisan race, BTW). He hasn’t changed in all these years and is still a nice guy.

Now, he does need to learn that it is the “Democratic Party” and the “estate tax,” especially if he wants to be the leader of all of Virginia.