Conservative Blog Warns Obenshain Not to Try to Steal AG Election

I noted this morning how the Richmond Times Dispatch has raised the specter again of Mark Obenshain trying to steal the Virginia Attorney General election by throwing the election into the Virginia General Assembly where apparently Obenshain thinks the GOP majority would give the election to him regardless of the voter of the Virginia electorate.   The conservative blog Bearing Drift - the leading Virginia conservative blog in the minds of some politico junkies - slams Obenshain for perhaps heading down this deceptive road.  Unlike too many in today's GOP, the folks at Bearing Drift worry about the long term viability of the Republican Party and winning future elections.  Here are some of the highlights:

A good lawyer will keep every possible option on the table for his or her client and that’s exactly what Mark Obenshain’s legal team is doing in advance of the recount of the ballots cast in the attorney general race. Among those options? Contesting the possible outcome of the recount before the General Assembly.

The basis for a contest appears to rest upon how ballots were handled in Fairfax county, where our own Brian Schoeneman was in the thick of the action in his role as an election official. Brian has been very open about the process the county used to count, canvass and secure its ballots. He has done, and continues to do, a fine job in that capacity.  But none of that may prevent a contest. 

The assumption is that given the partisan make-up of the General Assembly, Mark Obenshain would be able to win a contest without much problem. Republicans would hear whatever evidence is presented and, regardless of its quality, hand the AG’s office to one of their own.

That would be a fatal mistake. Wooly-eyed partisans would cheer such an outcome . . . The real damage, though, comes afterwards. Anointing a winner — even if it is allowed under Virginia law — carries with it the real possibility that the party selecting the new incumbent will suffer at the next election. Worse, whatever patina of cooperation exists between the parties today would be erased for good. There are those who prefer such an outcome, even yearn for it. But Virginia loses if that happens as the political class would descend into an orgy of destruction.

Mark Obenshain would do himself an immense deal of good by making sure that doesn’t occur. He is already well position to run for statewide office in 2017 if the recount does not go his way. 

Accept the recounts results and then get on with it. There will be plenty of fights to come in the next session. 

It is encouraging that a few sane Republicans still exist.  However, one has to wonder how long it will be before the folks at Bearing Drift begin to be called RINOS.