Commonweath Attorney's Race

It seems that we have another heated race in NOVA. The citizens of Fairfax County are going to the polls on Nov. 6 to decide who will occupy certain offices. Senate, Delegate, School Board, Commonweath's Attorney, and others are up for grabs. We need to make the right choices. One race that I am keeping my eye on is the run for Commonwealth's Attorney. Here, we have Patrick McDade against Ray Morrogh. At this point, the race is close. Morrogh is more or less the incumbent. He rose the post of CA late last month with the retirement of Bob Horan. McDade is the challenger, the fresh-faced Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney from Arlington County.

The key in this race is Morrogh's status as being entrenched in the CA's office for over 20 years versus McDade's fresh perspective. Do the voters like the way the CA Office has been handled, or are they ready for a change? Morrogh is touting his experience on several high-profile cases. McDade will tell you that Morrogh's office reduces felony charges to misdemeanors or completely drops the case 72% of the time. Where do we begin?

Morrogh has handled many high profile cases. Of course. He has been there for over 20 years. But let's not forget that they couldn't even get their case together in time to prosecute John Allen Muhammad, the DC sniper. How is this possible? With such a high-profile case, the CAO had help from all over the region, yet they couldn't get it done in time. What a shame. Morrogh's office also declined to prosecute the killer of Steve Cornejo, even though a civil jury awarded the young man's family $2 million in damages. It appears that Morrogh's office botched the investigation, even refusing to present the case to the grand jury themselves. They don't even feel that they have to provide an explanation for their actions. To me, a resident of Fairfax, this is appalling. Morrogh won't even talk aboiut the issue. Are these people trying to protect me or hurt me?

Contrast this with McDade, who will answer a question posed about this case. He promises to revisit the issue and to determine what charges can be pressed. Sure, he may not have all the experience in the world, but neither did Horan when he was elected. Horan retired at age 74 after 40 years in office, meaning he was first elected at age 34. That means that he had about as much experience as McDade. He's new to Fairfax, which means he has some perspectives that are not reminiscent of the good ol' boy network.

What say you...