Schwalb wins Democratic nomination for D.C. attorney general, AP projects
Schwalb, 54, often spoke of his legal experience and his desirewith the limited tools of the office. Spiva, a former Perkins Coie managing partner, spoke of his years as a civil rights attorney andfor criminal justice reform. In addition to touting his experience in civil and criminal cases, Jones,describing how he grew up in the city and
The D.C. attorney general, whose office includes more than 700 attorneys and staffers, is responsible for enforcing the District’s laws through civil and criminal work and providing legal advice to city agencies. The attorney general’s office prosecutes juvenile offenses and adult misdemeanor cases. The more serious crimes committed by adults — or juveniles 16 or over who are charged as adults — are handled by federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District.
Kenyan R. McDuffie , a former prosecutor and one of the longest-serving members of the D.C. Council, initially emerged as a front-runner when he launched his attorney general campaign last fall.McDuffie’s qualifications with the D.C. Board of Elections, arguing that District law required a person in the attorney general’s job to have been “actively engaged” in the city as a practicing attorney, judge or law school professor for at least five of the 10 years before taking office.
“I want to work with councilman McDuffie, and I have gotten a lot of support from people who are former supporters of him; I don’t think it played a role at all,” Spiva said. “I think what played a role was that Racine endorsed his former law partner.”Schwalb disputed that. “I’m not Karl part two. Karl has set a foundation that we have to build on, but we still have a lot of work that he hadn’t gotten to do yet,” he said.