Three seek GOP attorney general nod

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
Media General News Service
Published: November 20, 2008

The only real fight for a spot on the 2009 Republican ticket — the contest for the attorney general’s nomination — is now a three-way affair.

Dave Foster, a lawyer and former School Board member in heavily Democratic Arlington County, yesterday announced for attorney general.

Foster said as the state’s top lawyer, he would continue the crackdown on cyber-sex predators and other Internet-based threats, such as identity theft.

Foster also said the attorney general should be empowered to investigate voter fraud, an issue that flared mostly outside Virginia in the closing hours of the presidential campaign.

Foster, a partner in the giant law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski, said his seven years on Arlington’s elective School Board — as a trustee and later, chairman — demonstrates his appeal to Democrats.

“I can help our Republican ticket succeed in Northern Virginia and other Democrat-leaning areas, which is critical to success statewide,“ said Foster, 55, an Arlington native who graduated from the University of Virginia and its law school.

Republicans are in retreat, having lost the governorship twice since 2001, two U.S. Senate seats, three in the House as well as the Virginia Senate. The state tipped Democratic for president this year for the first time since 1964.

Republicans assemble their 2009 ticket at a convention.

The putative nominee for governor is Attorney General Bob McDonnell. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling faces now-nominal opposition for nomination for a second term from conservative lawyer Patrick Muldoon of Alexandria.

For attorney general, Foster faces John Brownlee, former U.S. attorney for Western Virginia, and state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax.

Brownlee, who recently announced endorsements from 75 sheriffs and local prosecutors, is a newcomer to elective politics.

Cuccinelli, narrowly re-elected last year in an increasingly Democratic district, is a favorite of the social, religious and cultural conservatives who control the Republican nominating apparatus.

Foster’s chief strategist is M. Boyd Marcus Jr., a veteran operative who this year was lead adviser to defeated U.S. Senate nominee Jim Gilmore, a former governor.

Assessing the crowded field for attorney general, Marcus said, “I can predict what happens in a two-way contest. A three-way is a different dynamic.“

Jeff E. Schapiro is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.