Debates for attorney general are usually kind of a sleeper. Not this year.
Democrat Jay Jones is in the midst of a scandal over texts he sent fantasizing about the murder of a former Republican speaker of the House of Delegates. Here's dean of the Schar School at George Mason University, Mark Rozell.
"I am sure there are going to be questions posed to him, 'Why don't you step down?' So just better have some really good, prepared answers that give some credibility to him going forward," says Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School at George Mason University. "Because he's in a big struggle right now."
The Republican candidate at the other end of the stage will be incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares.
J. Miles Coleman at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says Miyares needs to benefit from the scandal without being a one-note candidate. "He needs to show that he is not just only going to say that one thing," says Coleman. "I would, if I were him, focus on ways of disqualifying Jones that are not related to that story."
The debate Thursday night will be hosted by the Virginia State Bar and will take place at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, and viewers can livestream it through the website of the University’s law school.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
