A candidate seeking the Virginia House of Delegates’ 5th District seat doesn’t think his current job as the director of government and community relations for a local grocery store chain presents him with a potential conflict of interest.
In fact, Republican Israel O’Quinn counts his current position with K-VA-T Food Stores, the Abingdon-based parent company of Food City grocery stores, and the experience he’s gained since taking it five years ago among his greatest strengths.
“The biggest part of my job is managing and maintaining the great community relationships we have,” O’Quinn said last week in an interview about his campaign. “With my work experience, I’ve learned how valuable [working with government and business] is together.”
A graduate of Emory & Henry College, O’Quinn’s political career includes work on several campaigns for governor, attorney general, the U.S. Senate, the Virginia House of Delegates and various local offices.
He also spent two years working for former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, a Gate City native, and served as executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia’s Victory Campaign. He started working for K-VA-T in 2006.
“On the government side of things, my job is to help folks in our company stay abreast of, and compliant with, new laws and regulations, mostly at the federal level, that will affect their departments and our company,” he said of his job.
His duties also include keeping track of donations K-VA-T makes to community organizations in the three states it serves and working with its energy conservation team. O’Quinn said he is not a registered lobbyist, nor does he want to be one, challenging claims his opponent, independent Michael Osborne, has made to the contrary.
But his political experience goes beyond his employment. O’Quinn also sits on the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, is president-elect of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and is the Washington County Chamber of Commerce’s legislative chairman.
These three positions further O’Quinn’s claim that he has the business and government experience needed to adequately represent Southwest Virginia’s 5th District in the 100-member state House. He doesn’t think these jobs will create a conflict for him, but just in case they do he has a plan to deal with it.
“The General Assembly is full of farmers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, teachers, retirees and numerous other professions,” O’Quinn said. “If, at any point, they have a conflict, they abstain from voting on that particular piece of legislation, as would I.”
The election is Nov. 8.
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