From the Mark Herring for Attorney General campaign:
Ken Cuccinelli’s hand-picked successor misleads Virginians about his views on investigation of climate change scientist and former UVA Professor Michael Mann
Tea Party candidate and Ken Cuccinelli’s hand-picked successor Mark Obenshain continues to travel around the Commonwealth saying anything he can in hopes Virginians won’t notice his out-of-the-mainstream record in the state Senate.
According to The Washington Post and the Daily Press, Obenshain said he didn’t support Ken Cuccinelli’s crusade against climate change scientist and former University of Virginia professor Michael Mann.
The only problem…Obenshain did.
On February 3, 2011 – just ten months after Ken Cuccinelli began his crusade against Mann – Mark Obenshain stood up on the floor and led the charge to defeat a bill that would have prevented the Attorney General from issuing civil investigative demands to a Virginia Public institution of higher education when the claim relates to a matter of academic inquiry or research.
During the floor debate, the co-patrons of the bill clearly stated that this bill was aimed at preventing a situation similar to what Cuccinelli did to the University of Virginia. Senator Obenshain stood and encouraged members to defeat it. The narrowly tailored bill, would have prevented civil actions like the one Cuccinelli took against Mann.
The bill passed the Senate with bi-partisan support. Democrats and Republicans believed what Ken Cuccinelli had done was not right.
But not Senator Obenshain.
Senator Obenshain said, “stripping every attorney general of this power is simply wrong.”
McGuire posted on his blog, “I met Mark Obenshain” and “asked him my simple, straightforward litmus test for AG candidates: ‘Will you pursue the EPA lawsuit and Michael Mann case until all legal avenues are exhausted.’ His answer: ‘Absolutely.’”
It once again appears Senator Mark Obenshain is not telling the whole truth about his record.
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