In case you missed it, I wanted to pass along the Washington Post's strong endorsement of Steve Shannon for Attorney General from in this morning's paper. The Post says that Shannon would "steer a responsible course" in the AG's office, and would run the office "as a serious, non-partisan agency."

"Given his sometimes bizarre and incendiary ideas," the Post editors wrote, "We worry that Mr. Cuccinelli would drive qualified and nonpartisan lawyers away, transform the attorney general's office into a staging ground for his pet peeves and causes, and make it an object of ridicule in a state where it has enjoyed a long run of respect.

Read the Washington Post's full endorsement below:

Mr. Shannon for attorney general
Two Fairfax lawmakers are vying for the job -- one wonkish, one worrying.

THE RACE for attorney general in Virginia is a face-off between a pair of youngish lawyers, each from Fairfax County, each elected to the General Assembly this decade, and each now running his first statewide race. The similarities end there. While the Democratic candidate, Del. Stephen C. Shannon, is a mainstream former prosecutor -- strait-laced, sober, earnest almost to a fault -- his Republican opponent, state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, is a provocative hard-liner who at times has struggled vainly to attract a single vote for his more far-fetched initiatives.

Join the Coordinated Campaign, the Stafford Democratic Committee and Steve Shannon, candidate for Attorney General, as Steve helps kickoff a canvass at the Coordinated Campaign Office in Stafford! The GOTV canvass will be taking place this Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 4:00 PM.

The office is located at:

2063 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Stafford, VA 22554

(It is a couple hundred yards south of Courthouse and Route 1 - on the right hand side driving south)

To RSVP, please contact Justin at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Tory at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

UPDATE: Check out one of Steve's compelling ads. He is the candidate that will keep us and our children safe!

In this morning's Washington Post endorsement of Jody Wagner, the Post summed things up best by concluding that "she is easily the better choice as Virginia's next lieutenant governor and would represent a sharp improvement over the incumbent Republican seeking reelection, Bill Bolling." They went on to say that she is "the only one of the six statewide candidates to have had hands-on experience with the state's budget, she would be uniquely well placed to serve as a resource for whichever candidate is elected governor."

Read the Washington Post's full endorsement below:

Jody Wagner for lieutenant governor
In Virginia, a problem-solver is a better bet than a pol.

JODY WAGNER, Virginia's former secretary of finance, is the sort of Democrat that helped cement the Old Dominion's status as among the cleanest, best managed and most business-friendly states in the country. She is easily the better choice as Virginia's next lieutenant governor and would represent a sharp improvement over the incumbent Republican seeking reelection, Bill Bolling.

In the Washington Post's ringing endorsement of Sen. Creigh Deeds, one thing that is clear is that he "has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing the state's dangerously inadequate roads." And in a total repudiation of the policies of his opponent, the Post notes that Bob McDonnell offers "a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality. They would do little if anything to build a better transportation system."

In fact the Post goes on to say that Mr. McDonnell "proposes to pay for road improvements mainly by cannibalizing essential state services such as education, health and public safety -- a political non-starter" and "lacks the political spine to say what programs he would attempt to gut, or even reshape, in order to deal with transportation needs."

The Post concludes that McDonnell's ideas "would mire Virginia in a traffic-clogged, backward-looking past" while Creigh Deeds's "ideas hold the promise of a prosperous future."

Read the Washington Post's full endorsement below:

A LEGACY of sound policies, coupled with the proximity of the federal government, has partially protected Virginia from the harsh retrenchments that the recession has forced on many states. Yet the commonwealth faces a daunting crisis in the form of a drastic shortfall in transportation funding, measured in the tens of billions of dollars, that threatens future prosperity. If the current campaign for governor has clarified anything, it is that state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee, has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing the state's dangerously inadequate roads. The Republican candidate, former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, offers something different: a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality. They would do little if anything to build a better transportation system.