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More on the Loudoun Prosecutor Leak

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James A. Bacon
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The NV Daily’s Garren Shipley has the full story this morning on allegations that Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman was leaking grand jury information about Senate candidate Mark Tate to the press:

Charlie Jackson, a former reporter for Leesburg Today, wrote that Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman not only leaked information to him about the investigation into Tate’s faulty campaign finance records, but also pushed to have other negative material about the candidate published.

Tate’s lawyers want Plowman to answer questions about the conversations under oath, and have asked a court for permission to subpoena him.

Tate, a Loudoun County resident, challenged fellow Republican Jill Holtzman Vogel for the GOP nod in the November state Senate election. Sen. H. Russell Potts, Jr., R-Winchester, is not seeking re-election.

There could be a lot more to this story. Based upon the rumors and stories I’ve heard, there are many more people who have a great deal to answer for in this case. If even half of it is true, Plowman is just the tip of the ugly iceberg.

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8 responses to “More on the Loudoun Prosecutor Leak”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Let’s get to what matters to voters:

    -was holtzman-vogel involved?

    -what did she know?

    -when did she know it?

    Oh, and don’t forget about VCAP…..

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Garren Shipley deserves a lot of credit for getting this story out. Assuming that Plowman has done what he is accused of doing, his actions are inexcusable. Such abuse of an office should not be tolerated. Virginians should hold their office holders to the highest standards of integrity.

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    We should remember that Vogel-Holtzman is an election law attorney who (a) would know exactly what tricks to pull to trip up her opponent Mark Tate, and (b) has personal relationships with the election boards and could pick up the phone and stimulate action from the bureaucracy, different from every other campaign.

    THe question is whether Mark Tate is being treated differently from every other candidate (the answer is yes) simply so that Vogel-Holtzman can win. Suppose we examine ALL the filings of ALL the candidates with the same level of intense scrutiny? WILL ALL OR NEARLY ALL OF THE CANDIDATES BE INDICTED? I think we will find a glaring double standard. And more evidence of the Virginia “DIRTY TRICKS MACHINE” used to hand pick the candidates that the political insiders — not the voters — want elected.

    Also remember that this is how Jim Plowman got his job. In 2003, Jon Moseley was the Republican nominee for Commonwealth Attorney. Moseley’s voter registration card was then investigated on the charge that he registered to vote a few days before he moved instead of a few days after he moved. The charges were later laughed out of court by a grand jury, but not before the PURELY POLITICAL damage was done.

    Jon Moseley voluntarily stepped aside for the good of the Republican Party, to allow Jim Plowman to take his place.

    It looks like Jim Plowman learned the wrong lesson. Instead of learning to follow Jon Moseley’s example of integrity and self-sacrifice, Plowman instead learned how to play dirty tricks for political advancement. Instead of showing grattitude for Moseley’s generosity, and having never lifted a finger to help Moseley in thanks, it seems that Plowman and the GOP leaders have decided to “do unto others” for their own benefit.

    ANOTHER QUESTION WE NEED TO ANSWER is whether Plowman is angling for higher office in Virginia and hopes to build up favors with people like Vogel-Holtzman.

  4. Ric James Avatar
    Ric James

    I notice that the link to the NV Daily story on both this post and the previous one are coming back with a “story not found” page when I click it. I went to NV Daily to look for the story and can’t find it when I search for Plowman’s name. Is the story being retracted?

  5. Ric James Avatar
    Ric James

    Ah, here’s a link to a Loudoun Times-Mirror story on the matter. Not being retracted after all.

    http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2007/aug/31/reporter-files-sworn-statement-plowman-leaked-tate/

  6. Garren Shipley Avatar
    Garren Shipley

    No, the story most certainly is not being retracted. But, as one commenter over at Too Conservative noted, we are “web challenged” from time to time.

    We’re working on that, but until we finish making some changes, stories don’t have a long life on our web page.

    The best solution in the short term is to buy a hard copy of the paper, of course 🙂

  7. Loudoun Insider Avatar
    Loudoun Insider

    For those who aren’t too familiar with Loudoun County, you have to realize that everything in Loudoun politics is framed by the growth debate. The Loudoun County Republican Committee is dominated by the Citizens for Property Rights and anyone not for pedal to the metal growth is vilified as a RINO or a Democrat in disguise. Jim Plowman is apparently quite close to Dale Polen Myers, the queen bee of the CPR crowd. Mark Tate is a slow growth Republican who has earned the wrath of the CPR crowd for daring to support slower growth and lower density zoning. So apparently he is an acceptable target while malfeasance by the in-crowd is consistently swept under the rug. I see no other plausible explanation for the sequence of events, especially in light of other “developments”, excuse the pun.

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Except that Jill Vogel is not particularly close to developers either, and Mark Tate has been on BOTH sides of the growth issue to the point that the PEC crowd doesn’t like him and doesn’t trust him (ask them).

    So that really makes no sense. The fact that Mark Tate is a criminal who repeatedly and egregiously broke the law really has nothing to do with growth politics. Its one of the worst cases of election fraud that anyone’s seen in Virginia, THAT is why he’s being prosecuted.

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