Staunton | Forum for Commonwealth’s attorney candidates set for Sept. 15

The nonprofit Building Bridges for the Greater Good will be holding a candidate forum on Monday, Sept. 15, with the two candidates for the elected Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney post.

John Baber, a former assistant in the office, and Joe Perry, the current chief deputy, are vying for the job, with Jeffrey Gaines, who has been the top guy for the past eight years, set to retire at the end of the year.

The forum will take place at City Hall, in the Staunton City Council Chambers, beginning at 6 p.m. on Sept. 15.

If it was me running things, I’d ask one question:

What did you think of how the Gaines regime handled the case involving the MAGA charged with criminal reckless driving at an April 5 anti-Trump protest in Downtown Staunton?

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ICYMI

• Staunton judge dismisses reckless-driving charge against local towing company owner

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The office begged out of having anything to do with prosecuting the charge against Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, a local towing company owner with a lengthy rap sheet, and left it to me, because I was the one who brought the matter to a local magistrate.

The message sent by the Gaines office:

We don’t want to interfere with the right of local MAGAs to intimidate hundreds of people with a three-ton rolling, literally smoking weapon.

The guy told the cop who pulled him over – and didn’t write him a ticket! – that he was going to get out of his truck and “punch” protestors “right square in the motherf***ing mouth.”

This guy was left to me to try to prosecute.

The Building Bridges folks do good work – they’ve hosted events raising issues with mass incarceration, affordable housing and homelessness, and the effort to revive the local Uniontown community.

I would expect the questions from them and for the candidates for Commonwealth’s attorney will be hard-hitting.

I don’t expect them to ask my one question, but that’s fair.