Now if Delegate Moran wasn’t doing anything that he thought suspect, why respond this way.  So, instead of sticking to his guns, he backs down, brings hardship on his friend and fellow delegate who was a campaign employee, and looks like he’ll go whichever way the wind blows when it comes to the issues of the day.  That’s the type of guy you want as Governor of the Commonwealth.  H/T the BearingDrift

From Hampton Roads:

Thank you for the concerns raised in your editorial of July 26 regarding our staff. While we are disappointed that you insisted on implying the presence of scandal while admitting that none exists, thank you for making it clear that your focus was potential abuses, not actual ones.

Del. Lionell Spruill of Chesapeake is a valuable and important member of the Virginians for Brian Moran team. He leads outreach efforts in Hampton Roads and organizes support for Del. Moran across the state in the African-American community. Given Moran’s long service in the House of Delegates, he has worked with Spruill for more than a decade, and it was a clear choice to bring him into the campaign team for this important work.

We seek to strike a balance between Spruill’s right to earn a living as a part-time legislator and the concerns raised by your editorial. In a part-time legislature, any job held by a legislator has the potential for conflicts of interest, whether it’s a lawyer practicing in front of judges that he appoints, a school administrator in a school system she oversees or a developer working under growth laws he wrote. We have a history of electing honest individuals, and we put the public trust in their ability to steer clear of conflicts; we trust the people of the commonwealth to elect trustworthy individuals.

In light of the concerns raised, Moran plans to introduce a change to the General Assembly rules that expands the current ban on fundraising during the legislative session to include a ban on employment of any legislator by any candidate for public office or political committee during the same time period.

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