Mark Obenshain, the Tea Party Ticket, and Mark Levin

From the Mark Herring for Attorney General campaign:

MARK OBENSHAIN, THE TEA PARTY TICKET AND MARK LEVIN

Mark Obenshain’s Tea Party credentials are well-known, as evidenced by his extremevoting record and Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation endorsement. Once again, the entire “Extreme Team” Republican ticket is campaigning side-by-side as the most ideological-driven ticket in Virginia’s history.

The newest surrogate in town is conservative right-wing radio host Mark Levin, who will offer his full-throated endorsement of Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli at aConstitution Day Rally in Sterling, VA, starting at noon.

But this isn’t the first time Levin has been in Virginia with one of the members of the Tea Party ticket. Levin was campaigning alongside Obenshain at a gun show in Chantilly in July.

During his campaign for Attorney General, Mark Obenshain has been shying away from his voting record in the state Senate because it is too extreme for Virginia. However, Obenshain hasn’t backed away from playing to his base, attending Tea party eventsthroughout the state.

Additionally, Obenshain has shown been to have the same extreme ideology as his ticketmates, saying he and Cuccinelli are “two peas in a pod, philosophically.” E.W. Jackson has said that the Cuccinelli-Jackson-Obenshain ticket is “in fundamental agreement,” adding, “this ticket is probably more homogeneous than almost any ticket ever in the history of Virginia.”

This is why Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling has called this “the most ideologically driven ticket that we have seen in the history of our state.”

It’s also why mainstream Republicans like Virginia FREE chair Jimmy Hazel and former state legislators Russ Potts, John Chichester and Katherine Waddell are supporting Mark Herring.

As Attorney General, Mark Obenshain will continue to bend Virginia law to fit a rigid Tea Party ideology. Let’s look at his record:

Attacking Women’s Health

• Mark Obenshain led the charge to stop the campus health center at James Madison University from dispensing emergency contraceptive pills, claiming the pills induce abortion despite the fact that the ‘morning after’ prescription pill contains levonorgestrel, a synthetic hormone that is officially a contraceptive.
• Mark Obenshain voted in 2004, along with Ken Cuccinelli, to defeat “a ‘contraception is not abortion’ bill.
• Mark Obenshain supported three “personhood” bills: co-patroning the “personhood” bill in 2007, introducing it again in 2011 and voting for it yet again in 2012. The legislation would outlaw all abortion and many common forms of birth control.
• Mark Obenshain introduced a bill that would require women to report miscarriages to the police within 24 hours.
• Mark Obenshain voted in favor of the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound bill, calling it “common sense legislation.” He referred to the amended version of the bill, which changed the law from requiring a transvaginal ultrasound to a transabdominal ultrasound, as the “PG version” of the bill.
• Mark Obenshain sponsored a bill to outlaw abortions after twenty weeks, also known as the Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act or Fetal Pain Act in 2012, which would have outlawed abortions after 20 weeks.

Forcing His Beliefs On Others

• Mark Obenshain recently earned a perfect score of 100 from the Family Foundation of Virginia, a conservative interest group, for voting according to their recommendations on ‘pro-family’ legislation, including four anti-LGBT-related issues.
• In 2013, Obenshain voted in committee against increasing the penalty for violating Virginia’s “law requiring equal pay for equal work irrespective of sex.”
• Mark Obenshain voted against adding sexual orientation to Virginia’s nondiscrimination policy in 2010 and a similar measure in 2013 to prohibit discrimination in public employment.
• Mark Obenshain was among 12 Republicans in 2013 who walked out of the chamber rather than support a gay judicial nominee.
• Mark Obenshain, in 2010, “spoke against the state program to encourage awarding contracts to women and minorities.”  In 2011 he said Virginia should “stop granting a flat 40 percent of state contracts to women and minority owned businesses.”
• Mark Obenshain has refused to sign the Equality Virginia non-discrimination pledge.