State Senator Ken Stolle (R-8th) spent a lot of the last two decades railing about judicial appointments, judicial impropriety, and law enforcement. Those have been the centerpiece of his legislative agenda and would-be legacy. You’d think he’d want a judicial appointment where he could lay down the law, but he has set his sights on something in enforcement. Padding his state retirement by securing a job as Sheriff to top it off with a high-3 average annual salary might have perplexed some just a bit. Hey, it’s good work if you can get it and if Virginia Beach’s citizens wanted to fall for the law and order shtick and give him a nice bonus on his way out, it’s their privilege. He has curried favor and developed cordial relationships throughout the community and seems a hands down favorite for the position. Even if there is no grassroots support showing interest in his campaign, his strong name recognition combined with synergy from his brother’s campaign for delegate provide an advantage. Back room politics is not unusual. So when the self-anointed heir apparent to the office Stolle seeks suddenly found himself faced with the prospect of a primary against the Senator, his disappointment was quelled by an “understanding.” After all, Stolle only needs three years to be entitled to the maximum potential retirement and then the fellow could step right in with Stolle’s blessing and endorsement. Not finishing terms in office is a Republican tradition. So sayeth Bob McDonnell. If the calming of the waters had ended there, it might have been routine.
Then the ghost of Richard Nixon showed up to nudge the effort along. The patently obvious staging of Stolle’s announcement where he was flanked by members of the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office who just happened to voluntarily appear in uniform was the first outward hint that he was desperate for the advantage. Everyone knows that off-duty officers always remain in uniform just in case they need a loaf of bread from 7-Eleven or to attend a campaign event. Surely none of them were on duty, attending on the taxpayers’ dime.
There follows the spiral downward and whether or not Stolle is directly involved he is tainted. Sheriff Paul Lanteigne’s office has been the Stolle campaign’s source of the names, addresses, and full contact information of every officer and civil employee of the department. His secretary has spent city/state time gathering this information and made it available to the Stolle campaign. On the secretary’s desk you will regularly find Stolle campaign literature. And you can bet there are E-mails.
For his part, and beyond other facets of impropriety this is more than creepy from a leadership standpoint, the Senator has leaned on the members of the department to attend informal functions. All this using the illgotten fruit of Stolle’s relationship with Sheriff Lanteigne: the personal information. Nothing like stomping all over the privacy of public servants and your potential subordinates. Imagine the fanciful approach he could take as Sheriff.
And you can rest assured that our wisp of a Commonwealth’s Attorney will see no issue with one hand washing the other. Or if he does, he will pass it off like a hot potato, just like the Sessoms/Obama flyer investigation, to another quisling. Or, rationalize it and laugh it off as an amateurish prank the way he has done voter suppression. The local media is so immune to these inner goings on of local politics it is apparently unable to discern conflicts of interest or ethical breaches. But what will be more bothersome to those who trust the will of the people is that Senator Stolle will bedazzle Virginia Beach voters and convince enough of them that he is entitled that he will be elected to the position. Where do you go to get a competent Special Prosecutor? Or a Commonwealth’s Attorney that doesn’t consistently place himself in positions where he should be investigating his own office?
Cross posted at VBDems - Blogging our way to Democratic wins in Virginia Beach!