Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Northern Virginia Senate candidate indicted

A Middleburg man running for the Republican nomination for a state Senate seat has been indicted in Loudoun County on charges of election fraud and perjury. The Washington Post reports that the indictments were made public today, three weeks before voters go to the polls.

Mark Tate, a restaurateur and the former vice mayor of Middleburg, faces Jill Holtzman Vogel, a Warrenton lawyer, for the GOP nod for the seat of retiring Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., I-Winchester. The seat’s district covers parts of Loudoun and Fauquier counties, all of Clarke and Frederick counties and the City of Winchester.

Tate’s lawyer, Ed MacMahon, told the Post that Tate would plead not guilty to the charges. MacMahon blasted the timing of the indictments, so close to the June 12 primary date. The prosecutor who brought the charges, Jim Plowman, said politics had nothing to do with it. He added that a special prosecutor, King George County Commonwealth's Attorney Matt Britton, will handle the case from now on.

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