In today’s Washington Times (“Maryland GOP hopes to bring Bush win home”), there’s a blurb about a new entrant into the Virginia Attorney General race:
Longtime Prince William County Attorney Sharon E. Pandak plans to seek her party’s nomination for Virginia attorney general next year in the June primary election. Mrs. Pandak, who recently resigned after holding her post 15 years, will formally announce her candidacy in the coming month.
“I bring experience and knowledge of local government and its relationship to state government that would be valuable in that office,” said Mrs. Pandak, 51.
She grew up in Staunton and now lives in Woodbridge.
She resigned from the appointed, nonpartisan position so she could run for attorney general.
Four people besides Mrs. Pandak have expressed interest in the position.
Democrats also running for the nomination are state Sen. Robert Creigh Deeds of Charlottesville and Sen. John S. Edwards of Roanoke.
Delegate Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia Beach and Richmond lawyer Steve Baril are running for the Republican nomination.
The piece is a bit unclear, but it appears that she’s seeking the Democratic nomination, running against Sen. John Edwards and Sen. Creigh Deeds for the nod.
I don’t mean to rain on Ms. Pandak’s parade, but I ain’t never heard of her, and neither, I suspect, has just about anybody else south of Prince William. Now, to be fair, there’s a whole lot of people up in northern Virginia (an area of the state that is regarded, by the rest of us, as The North, a state with which we have nothing to do, by choice) who may think she’s the cat’s pajamas, and it’s not like Creigh Deeds and John Edwards are terribly well-known, either. Still, to jump from a northern Virginia non-partisan, non-elected county position to running for a statewide office is a pretty serious leap. I’ll be interested to see if she gets any traction.