Justin Fairfax for AG at Brigades Mtg.

I haven't had a lot to blog about but I am so glad to present Justin Fairfax, running for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of Virginia in 2013. This year Democrats are blessed and cursed to have excellent candidates running for statewide office (and the past and current crop of Republicans are such a disaster). Blessed we have such great people running but cursed that we have to make a choice.

Below are my reasons for supporting Justin Fairfax for Attorney General. Let me know what you think. Justin is one of the most talented candidates I've met in Virginia and 1-on-1, he is the best and that goes for all current and past elected officials I’ve met. If you get a chance to talk to him for just 2 minutes I’m confident you will be sold. Justin engages people without hesitation. He listens carefully and he responds to what you have to say or ask. He has an amazing memory and can handle complicated, 3 part questions and answer each one brilliantly (watch the second video). I have a post-it note on my mirror that says: Good morning, your name is Todd Smyth.

Justin was fantastic at our Brigades meeting this last Thursday and I barely got my camera charged in time to take this video to share (my camera ran out of juice just as he finished). I broke the video in 2 parts. The first is Justin’s presentation and the second is the Q&A. Brigades members ask tough questions and Justin knocked them out of the park. Please watch both video clips and give Justin your serious consideration.

Justin makes it clear that the job of Attorney General is to fight for and protect our rights, not restrict them like our current AG has. The AG is not supposed to spend all their time investigating college professors for teaching science or restricting people's personal decisions or suppressing voters like Republicans do. The AG is our advocate in Richmond to stand up and fight for the people against the special interests, not turn a blind eye while the banks rip us off. Justin will clearly be our advocate in Richmond and that is why I am supporting him.

I like Sen. Herring a great deal and I think he would make a good Attorney General but if he were to win the general election, his Senate seat would be vacant for months while a special election was held and it’s not clear we would hold that seat in an off cycle, winter, special election, with no spending limits. This seems like a big problem to me? I am more than a little concerned about handing over the Senate to Republicans, even for a short period of time. We've already seen how they tried to redistrict the entire state with just one seat vacant for one day this past January.

I would also make the point that President Obama won Virginia twice because young and minority voters came out to vote in record numbers and they came out in large part because President Obama is a young and minority candidate. We can not rely on the failed and too often repeated mistake of expecting a few Republicans (who voted for Mitt Romney last year) to vote for our candidates this year. We need a statewide ticket that reflects the great diversity of people who live in Virginia so we can get the maximum number of people out to vote and pick up seats in the House of Delegates this year. Justin can reach out to these voters and I hope you will join me in supporting Justin Fairfax for Attorney General in the Democratic primary on June 11, 2013. And please vote for Justin at Congressman Connolly's St. Patrick's Day party on March 17th.

Justin Fairfax for Virginia Attorney General – Website – Facebook – Twitter