Mark Herring Attorney Confident of AG Race Recount Victory

Mark Herring at left; Obenshain at right

Unless the Virginia GOP steals the attorney general election by fabricating a reason to throw the election result to the GOP controlled House of Delegates (a possibility discussed in prior posts), the legal team for Democrat Mark Herring is confident that Herring will prevail in the election recount.  It is critical that Mark Obenshain - a minion of The Family Foundation and anti-abortion and anti-gay extremist - not gain the attorney general position from which he could work to sabatoge all of the efforts of Governor McAuliffe and Lt. Governor Ralph Northam.  The Daily Progress looks at the optimism of the Herring legal team.  Here are story excerpts:

An attorney for state Sen. Mark Herring said Monday he expects the Democrat to retain his slim lead over Republican state Sen. Mark Obenshain in the race for Virginia attorney general.

“I don’t expect a significant change,’’ Washington, D.C.-based attorney Marc Elias, a veteran of election recounts, said in a teleconference. “I expect the attorney general-elect [Herring] — whether there is a recount or not — will prevail.”

 

The final certification by the State Board of Elections is set for Nov. 25. As of Monday’s unofficial tally, Herring, of Loudoun County , has a 164-vote lead among more than 2.2 million votes cast.

Elias said just three recent statewide recounts “against the backdrop of hundreds and hundreds” have changed the result. He called the recent canvass of votes in Virginia cities and counties “painstaking.”

Elias comes as a seasoned attorney in election battles. According to the website for his law firm, Perkins Coie , he was the lead counsel for Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken in his successful 2008 Minnesota race and recount, which was decided in that state’s Supreme Court.

Obenshain , of Harrisonburg , has said he is committed to seeing the process through. He is expected to request a recount if he does not come out the winner.

Both candidates have put transition teams in place. Herring is preparing to take over as attorney general, said his campaign manager, Kevin O’Holleran .  “[Herring] has been focused on governing,’’ O’Holleran said.