Attorney General Mark Herring To Run For Second Term

Mark Herring will run for a second term as Virginia’s Attorney General.

“This hard won progress is as fragile as the next election,” he said Wednesday. “Our future progress as a commonwealth requires an attorney general who will fiercely and fearlessly promote justice, equality and opportunity for all Virginians.”

Herring won in 2013 by the thinnest of margins against Republican Mark Obenshain. The close race required a recount that kept the result in question until mid-December.

Once in office Herring quickly pivoted away from the conservative leadership of his predecessor, Ken Cuccinelli.

Instead, Herring offered progressive stands on marriage equality for gays and lesbians and supported in-state tuition for children brought to the country illegally who qualified for deferred action by immigration agents.

“Mark Herring has run the Virginia Attorney General’s Office like Barack Obama’s Justice Department. While he promised to get politics out of the Office, he has done the exact opposite,” said state Republican Chairman John Whitbeck in a statement Wednesday. “Herring has at times refused to enforce Virginia law and instead advanced a Bernie Sanders-style progressive agenda.”

More at Patch:

• Obenshain Concedes in Virginia Attorney General Race
• Same-Sex Marriage Switch: Herring Sides With Couples Fighting Gay Marriage Ban
• Virginia Attorney General: ‘DREAMer’ Immigrants Eligible for In-State Tuition

If Democrats are sweating that record, they’re not showing it. In fact, Herring’s decision looks like a win for Democrats worried about a bruising gubernatorial primary with likely candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

“This is great news for Virginia Democrats,” Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Parties can still win despite a divisive nominating contest, but it is much easier if you have no fight for the top position and an incumbent anchoring the ticket in the AG spot.”