A few weeks before Mark Herring won the 2013 Virginia attorney general election by a margin of only 0.04%, he wrote an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch vowing to “take politics out of the office,” to put the law first, and to reject “extremist politics.”
But Herring took the attorney general’s office and didn’t just run with it – he abused it, taking one extreme position after the next for four straight years. It’s time Virginia voters kicked him out of office.
Mark Herring has a clear record of putting extremist politics ahead of his job. When the General Assembly passed a law in 2011 requiring abortion facilities to comply with basic health, safety, and sanitation standards, Herring declared that abortion businesses simply did not have to comply with state law. The regulations included such simple things as having doorways wide enough for a gurney to pass through, regular sanitation inspections, and requirements for facility staff handling drugs. Herring issued a legal opinion stating that the law did not apply to abortion facilities built before the law was passed – which just so happens to include all the state’s abortion facilities.
Herring issued another legal opinion this year claiming legislation to limit abortions after five months in the commonwealth of Virginia would “very likely” be unconstitutional. Twenty states have already passed legislation protecting babies after five months – a point by which science shows unborn children feel pain. The limit has yet to receive a serious legal challenge and the measure is supported by a majority of Americans, women in higher numbers than men.
For the past four years, Herring has acted recklessly. Now he’s running for re-election, campaigning on a promise not to take politics out of the office, but rather to politicize it even further. Herring has pledged, like Gov. McAuliffe before him, to be a “brick wall” when it comes to abortion, opposing even modest pro-life initiatives. He says he wants to lead the “resistance” in Virginia.
Virginians have had enough. John Adams will restore honor and respect to the post of Attorney General by acting in accordance with the law and the Constitution. (And yes, he is related to that John Adams.)
Adams comes from outside the political establishment, but his resume is mighty impressive – after graduating from the Virginia Military Institute, Adams was commissioned as a United States Naval Officer. After completing his service, he used the GI Bill to enroll in law school, and worked as a clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He worked as Associate White House Counsel for President George W. Bush and then became a federal prosecutor in Richmond. After turning to private practice, he has continued serving the public interest, doing pro bono work on behalf of non-profit groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, Catholic nuns who serve the elderly poor and have been the targets of the abortion lobby, which sought during the Obama Administration to force employers of faith and conscience to cover abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their health care plans. Adams is committed to treating the office of attorney general “the way it’s meant to be treated” and to protecting the state constitution and the rights of all Virginians.
There could not be a clearer contrast between Mark Herring and John Adams. Herring is a political bully who manipulated his office to push extremist pro-abortion politics on Virginia. Adams is a humble and dignified man who will be a true public servant. Virginia, you have a choice to make this November.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is a highly respected pro-life activist from Northern Virginia.