Bob McDonnell

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Bob McDonnell
Attorney General of Virginia
In office January 14, 2006 – February 20, 2009
Preceded by	Judith Jagdmann
Succeeded by	Bill Mims
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the 84th district
In office 1992 – 2005
Preceded by	Glenn McClanan
Succeeded by	Sal Iaquinto
Born	June 15, 1954 ( 1954 -06-15) (age 55) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Maureen Patricia Gardner
Children	Jeanine, Caitlin, Rachel, Bobby, Sean
Residence	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Alma mater	University of Notre Dame Boston University Regent University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	www.bobmcdonnell.com
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1976–1997
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	United States Army Reserve (1981–1997)

Robert F. "Bob" McDonnell (born June 15, 1954) is an American politician and lawyer. A conservative Republican, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates 1992–2005. He is the former Attorney General of Virginia, who resigned to campaign full time for Governor of Virginia in the 2009 election.^{[update][1][2]}

Personal life and early career

McDonnell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in northern Virginia. His father, John McDonnell, was a retired United States Air Force officer. His mother, Emma, worked at Mount Vernon. McDonnell graduated from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1972.^[1][3]

He attended the University of Notre Dame on an ROTC scholarship, graduating with a B.B.A. in Management in 1976. He went on to receive a M.S.B.A. from Boston University in 1980, and a M.A./J.D. from Regent University in 1989.^[1][3]

McDonnell served in the United States Army for four years, and sixteen in the Army Reserve, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel^[1]. While on active duty, he ran a medical clinic in Germany from 1976-1979, and in Newport News, Virginia from 1979-1981 [1]. He spent the rest of the sixteen years of military service in America.

He married Maureen Patricia Gardner. They have five children. The oldest, Jeanine, served as a U.S. Army officer in Iraq.^[1][3]

Political career

House of Delegates

McDonnell was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1992, serving seven terms (14 years). He represented the 84th district in Virginia Beach. Under the 1998–2001 power-sharing arrangement between House Republicans and Democrats, he was co-chair of the Committee on the Chesapeake and its Tributaries in 2000–2001, He became chair of the Courts of Justice Committee in 2003. He also served on the Rules Committee 2000–2005, and was Assistant Majority Leader.^[1][4][5]

Attorney General

Jeri Thompson, wife of former senator Fred Thompson, speaks with Virginia Attorney Gen Bob McDonnell

In 2005, McDonnell ran for Attorney General. The first result showed him with a victory of 323 votes, out of over 1.9 million votes cast, over his opponent, Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds. Deeds filed for a recount, which began on December 20, 2005. After preliminary figures revealed 37 more votes for McDonnell and that Deeds would not make up the difference, he conceded the next day, giving McDonnell a 323 vote margin of victory.^[6] McDonnell outspent Deeds by almost three million dollars (McDonnell spent $5,962,067 to Deeds' $3,103,585); $2,084,089 of McDonnell's campaign contributions were funneled through the Republican State Leadership Committee,^[7] exploiting a loophole in state law that was closed by the General Assembly—with the support of McDonnell—shortly after the election.^[8][9]

He was inaugurated on January 14, 2006 in Williamsburg along with Governor Tim Kaine and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling.

In 2007, McDonnell "played a key role in early negotiations" on the transportation package that was the key issue of contention in the General Assembly.^[10]

Prior to a performance of the Sex Workers' Art Show at the College of William and Mary in the Spring of 2008 McDonnell forbade the sale of the group's books on school grounds, prompting the group to encourage students to chant "Bob McDonnell loves naked ladies!".^[11]

McDonnell took the side of defecting Northern Virginia Episcopalians in a property lawsuit over the right of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia to retain church properties.^[12]

On February 4, 2009, he announced that he would resign as attorney general, effective February 20, to run for governor full time.

Candidate for governor

Robert McDonnell announced his candidacy for the 2009 Virginia Gubernatorial election at American Legion's Boy's State of Virginia 2007, making him the seventh consecutive elected Attorney General to run. The GOP nominated McDonnell without significant opposition to be their nominee for Governor. Creigh Deeds won the Democratic Party primary, which sets up a rematch between the two candidates who ran for attorney general 4 years earlier.

In contrast to his Democratic opponents and Democratic Gov. Kaine, McDonnell is campaigning to begin petroleum exploration and development off the coast of Virginia.^[13]

McDonnell opposed the acceptance of $125 million in federal stimulus funds to enable Virginia to extend unemployment benefits to Virginians who work part time or are in approved job training programs because, according to his campaign, it would create "an unfunded federal mandate to permanently expand benefits with one time funding poses an undue hardship on the taxpayers and employers. Thus the long term effect would not be good for economic development." ^[14] After the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates narrowly voted to reject the federal funds, McDonnell's stance was the subject of an opposing ad by Common Sense Virginia, a political action committee.^[15] McDonnell said the ad was "deceptive", and he called Common Sense Virginia "an out of state partisan attack dog group funded by big national unions".^[16]

Notes

References

• "Past members; Robert F. McDonnell". Virginia House of Delegates. http://dela.state.va.us/dela/Membios.nsf/HSearch/?SearchView&Query=%5BFullName%5D+Contains+mcdonnell+&SearchMax=&SearchOrder=4. 

External links

• Bob McDonnell for Governor (campaign website)