Serious Legal Concerns Regarding Mitch McConnell’s Hand-picked AG Candidate Daniel Cameron’s Inexperience
This week, a legal complaint was filed against Mitch McConnell-protégé Kentucky Republican Attorney General candidate Daniel Cameron, alleging that Cameron is not qualified to run for state Attorney General in Kentucky because he does not have enough experience practicing law. This isn’t the first time McConnell’s tried something like this.
To run for Attorney General in Kentucky, a candidate is required to have practiced law for a minimum of eight years before his election to office.
According to the complaint, Cameron will not have been a practicing attorney for eight years, as required by the Kentucky Constitution to run for Attorney General, by the time the General Election rolls around this November.
The lawsuit alleges that Cameron’s first job out of law school, as a judicial law clerk for a judge with ties to McConnell, expressly forbade the “practice” of law during the clerkship. That would mean these TWO years of clerkship are not eligible years that count towards the requirement to run for Kentucky Attorney General.
This would mean that Cameron could not have practiced law for eight years before the November election, rendering him ineligible to run for Attorney General.
Cameron already lacked the substantive legal experience to serve the people of Kentucky, and now there are additional serious allegations whether he can meet the bare minimum requirements to even run for this position according to Section 92 of the Kentucky Constitution.
Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked his former staffer Cameron to run for Attorney General in Kentucky to strengthen his own political empire before his own re-election in 2020.
Daniel Cameron is not shy about his goal to follow his mentor Mitch McConnell’s footsteps saying, “when I first met [McConnell] I knew he was somebody I wanted to emulate.”
In fact, even before he graduated from college, Daniel Cameron hitched himself to the McConnell wagon and hasn’t left his shadow since. A timeline:
- 2006: Daniel Cameron becomes a college intern in Mitch McConnell’s D.C. office.
- 2010: Daniel Cameron becomes a law school Intern in Mitch McConnell’s D.C. office where he works under the wing of Russell Coleman who was McConnell’s senior advisor and chief-legal counsel.
- 2011–2013: After graduating from law school, Daniel Cameron spends two years as a law clerk for a McConnell-approved judge and former McConnell staffer, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove.
- 2013–2015: Following his clerkship, Daniel Cameron spends less than two years at a firm where he doesn’t try a single case.
- 2015–2017: Daniel Cameron becomes Legal Counsel to Mitch McConnell in his D.C. office.
- 2017-present: Daniel Cameron swings through the revolving door and lands at Frost Brown Todd, a big firm that represents clients like opioid manufacturers and other businesses that are accused in lawsuits of violating consumer protection law. Frost Brown Todd was also the home of Russell Coleman, McConnell’s former Chief-legal Counsel and supervisor to Cameron’s law school internship.
There are already swelling concerns in Kentucky about Cameron’s close ties to McConnell and lack of legal experience from both Democrats and Republicans — and now there are legal concerns about whether his name should even be allowed to appear on the ballot in November.
Experience matters.
If you were selecting a surgeon, would you trust the surgeon with a track record of healthy patients or the one who hasn’t passed his/her/their boards? If you are flying, do you want to be a passenger on a plane with a pilot who hasn’t completed all the necessary flight training hours?
Kentucky families and communities need an Attorney General they can trust who has the legal experience to protect their health care, push for criminal justice reform, and fight for working Kentuckians.
Daniel Cameron brags about his work for Mitch McConnell in Washington, D.C. but how much does he know about the needs of real families living in Kentucky and how to use the courts to protect them? Not only is Cameron a strong supporter of McConnell and Governor Bevin, he is also inexperienced in the courtroom.
The role of the Attorney General is to be the people’s lawyer. Further, an Attorney General is an independent watchdog on government with a particular focus on rooting out corruption. Kentuckians can’t afford to have a McConnell or Bevin puppet without significant legal or real world experience in the Attorney General’s office. And voters definitely should not expect Cameron to put their needs over the political whims of his bosses.
