J.B. Van Hollen won't seek a third term.
I'm glad.
Overall, he's been a disappointment.
From the Wisconsin State Journal:
Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen will not seek a third term next year, he announced Monday.Although the race is wide open, I think the Republican candidate for AG will benefit tremendously from Scott Walker supporters.
His decision to step away from the seat leaves a high profile state office wide open in 2014.
...Van Hollen’s announcement came shortly after Democratic businesswoman Mary Burke launched her campaign for governor.
“When I chose to stand for this office eight years ago, I had a clear vision of what an Attorney General should do, and as importantly, should not do,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “Simply put, I believed Wisconsin needed an Attorney General who would fight crime and restore integrity.”
He added, “I have kept faith with my promises.”
In his statement, Van Hollen touted his accomplishments as attorney general, including his work fighting crimes against children, dealing with the DNA backlog at the state crime laboratories and supporting local law enforcement.
Van Hollen, who was first elected to the seat in 2006 and re-elected in 2010, also said that he had put the law first.
“We have put the law and the rule of law above politics, thus eliminating the all-too-common Attorney General activism that grows government and contributes to political discord and dysfunction,” he said. “Legal opinions of the Attorney General became just that: legal opinions, not my personal opinions.”
The runaway WI Senate Democrats, the protesters, and the subsequent recall election are all still fresh in people's minds.
The Democrats and their antics really energized the silent majority. I don't see that subsiding in 2014.
