Former United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin J.B. Van Hollen officially announced his candidacy for state attorney general Monday with a pledge to serve justice for the public through a cooperative effort with local counties throughout the state.
Van Hollen, a Wisconsin native and University of Wisconsin Law School graduate, will battle Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher in the Republican primary for the for the right to square off against Democratic incumbent AG Peg Lautenschlager.
“My main priority is to get elected and make a change,” Van Hollen said. “I want to learn what [people’s] concerns are and … be responsive to what people want in an attorney general.”
Van Hollen said Lautenschlager has not been a very good leader and it is time for Wisconsin to see a change in law enforcement.
“Our current attorney general has not been reaching out and hasn’t been a very good leader for law enforcement,” Van Hollen said. “I think it’s time for a change and I have the proven track record to [bring about] that change.”
Van Hollen began his career in the public sector as an assistant state defender in Spooner, Wisconsin. He later served as assistant state attorney in Madison in both the civil division and the criminal division. Former governor Tommy Thompson appointed Van Hollen to district attorney of Ashland County in 1993. Six years later Van Hollen was assigned as DA of nearby Bayfield County.
President George W. Bush appointed Van Hollen as U.S. attorney for Wisconsin’s Western District in 2002, where he served for two years until resigning Jan. 31.
Van Hollen said he takes pride in his federal and state accomplishments while in the U.S. attorney position and hopes to use his experiences to guide a successful bid for attorney general.
“As [U.S. attorney], I did a good job in working … with the FBI and state and local officials to protect homeland security after Sept. 11,” Van Hollen said. “We also almost tripled firearms prosecutions … and we were able to see a noted decrease in firearms usage in areas where we were [working].”
Everyone believes crimes involving firearms are a problem, Van Hollen said, and the only dispute is whether there should be more gun control laws or whether the existing laws should be enforced better.
“I am a proponent of enforcing the ones we have,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen said while he was a DA, he realized he had no support from the attorney general or U.S. attorney general’s office and discovered other DA’s felt the same way. He said this experience allowed him to see the need for a change in the current justice system.
“I [want to] reach out to all 44 counties … and say I’m here to help and work with them in a cooperative effort,” Van Hollen said. “[My] main job is to do justice.”
Bucher’s spokesman Stan Riffle said Van Hollen’s announcement to run against Bucher is “no surprise” and that Bucher is confident his own experiences will “weigh well” against Van Hollen’s resume.
“The competition is great,” Riffle said. “We look forward to a good and spirited campaign and we welcome J.B. to it.”
