Jonathan Starkey

The News Journal

Biden%27s statement Thursday said he will complete his current term.

Biden has battled health problems recently%2C and made the announcement in a written statement.

Attorney General Beau Biden said Thursday he plans to run for governor in 2016, forgoing an expected race this fall for re-election to a third-term as the state's top law enforcement officer.

Biden, who has battled health problems over the past year, made the announcement in written statements and a letter to supporters. He declined interview requests and did not schedule a press conference.

"After careful consideration, I have concluded that it is not right to ask for your support in 2014, knowing that my focus would be divided between doing my job as attorney general while at the same time running as a candidate for governor," Biden said in his letter to supporters.

Biden's statement did not indicate whether his decision to skip a third term was affected by his health.

In August, Biden was hospitalized at a Texas cancer center, where he underwent a procedure to remove a "small lesion" from his brain. He mostly has avoided the public eye since, appearing at few public events while working from his Wilmington office, though his doctor said in a February statement that he gave Biden a "clean bill of health."

Molly Magarik, Biden's political director, said his health was not a factor in the decision.

Biden, 45, also was away from his office for several weeks in 2010 after suffering what was described as a "mild stroke."

"As your attorney general I have done my best to remain true to the core values I believe define public service – honesty, integrity, and doing right by the people I serve," Biden said in the statement. "Part of doing right by you is being straight with you about my future plans."

Biden said he made the decision to skip the attorney general campaign "over the past few months," as he became more serious about pursuing the governor's office in 2016.

"The Office of Attorney General is a four-year commitment. Its responsibilities are too significant, and the voters' trust too important not to give it my complete and undivided attention. It should not be, nor can it become, a two-year staging ground for another elected office," he said.

Biden, the eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden, lives in Greenville with his wife, Hallie, and two children.

Wilmington lawyer and Democratic donor Stuart Grant said Biden's decision to forgo the attorney general's race with an eye on the governor's office "should not be surprising to people who know Beau.

"He doesn't take on a commitment he can't honor. The fact that he is very serious about running for governor, given who he is, precluded him from saying, 'I'll run for another term,' " Grant said. "That's just not Beau."

Ripple effects

Biden's statement Thursday said he will complete his current term. "In the meantime, there's a lot more work to do over the next eight months, and I intend to get it done. After my term is completed, I look forward to meeting with Delawareans and continuing to discuss my plans as a candidate for governor."

Sen. Greg Lavelle, a Sharpley Republican who has been named as a potential candidate for governor, said Biden is "facing personal challenges and he needs to focus on that first. I'm glad he did it. Like every other Delawarean, I'm praying for his health."

Biden's announcement that he will run for governor in 2016 will have ripple effects. Lt. Gov. Matt Denn and U.S. Rep. John Carney, who lost a Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2008 to now-Gov. Jack Markell, also have been seen as potential candidates.

In an interview Thursday, Denn said he will consider running for attorney general this year, which, if he won, would mean leaving his post as lieutenant governor. The election is in November.

"Until this morning, I didn't have any reason to think that there was not going to be an incumbent running for that," Denn said.

Denn also did not rule out a Democratic primary against Biden in 2016.

"He's obviously a very formidable candidate," said Denn, who has planned to make a decision on the governor's race by the end of this year. "That's one of the things you look at when you're deciding whether to run is who else is running."

Gov. Jack Markell declined to be interviewed but issued a statement on Biden's decision, saying "I know he has a bright future.

"Beau has been a dedicated public servant and I have appreciated the opportunity to work with him on some of the most important challenges facing our state," Markell said. "His focus on protecting children is something he will be remembered for and the reforms he's championed will make a difference for Delaware kids for decades to come."

National spotlight

Biden was first elected attorney general in 2006, beating longtime prosecutor Ferris Wharton. Biden was re-elected easily in 2010, with no primary and no Republican challenger. He picked up 79 percent of the vote against an independent candidate.

He dedicated significant time last year to fundraising efforts, raising more than $1.4 million through his campaign and political action committees. He had more than $900,000 in cash on hand at the end of the year.

Magarik said as recently as two weeks ago that Biden intended to seek a third term. He had been widely expected to seek the governor's office as attorney general.

Biden's two terms have been marked, in some ways, by interruption and speculation about his political future.

He spent a year in Iraq during his first term, deploying in October 2008 as a member of the Delaware National Guard. Biden achieved national recognition through his father's vice presidential campaigns, landing speaking roles at the Democratic National Conventions in 2008 and 2012 and serving as a surrogate for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign with veterans.

In January 2010, he passed on running for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by his father, saying that a Senate campaign would take his focus away from "a case of great consequence," the prosecution of the pedophile pediatrician Earl Bradley.

The Bradley case

But while his office pursued the doctor's conviction, Biden's team was criticized for failing to file charges against the doctor before December 2009.

Bradley was charged with raping 47 new victims and filming many of the vicious attacks during the one-year period starting in December 2008, when a judge denied a search warrant to the doctor's office near Lewes but suggested he would sign an arrest warrant. Though state police said they had exhausted all leads before a new victim came forward in December 2009, Biden insisted his office "took affirmative steps'' that led to Bradley's arrest during the one-year period.

A task force report ordered by Markell also criticized prosecutors for not reporting the allegations against Bradley to the state medical disciplinary board as required by law.

Biden was deployed in Iraq with his National Guard unit during much of that time, and said he did not know about the case until Bradley was arrested.

Once Bradley was arrested, Biden's office seized the doctor's assets, urged victims' families to call a hot line to access an array of counseling and other services, and indicted Bradley on hundreds of rape counts.

The attorney general also ordered an investigation into why law enforcement authorities did not report abuse allegations against Bradley to the medical board in 2005 – before Biden took office – after they decided not to charge Bradley.

Biden also sat in on Bradley's one-day trial and sentencing in 2011. After Bradley was given 14 life terms plus 164 years in prison, Biden stood outside the Sussex County Courthouse and said: "He will never again hurt a child," adding that his office would "continue to provide for the victims and their families as they go about healing from this tragedy in the weeks, months and years to come."

A top priority

Since taking office, Biden has made crimes against children a priority, securing convictions against 180 people for dealing in child pornography and other child crimes. His child predator division has received praise in the General Assembly.

But this month, he defended his office's handling of child rape case against a du Pont heir, Robert H. Richards IV, who avoided prison time in favor of probation after admitting to raping his 3-year-old daughter.

Biden said prosecutors and the judge who sentenced Richards properly handled the case, which he said lacked physical evidence and relied on the testimony of a child. "This was not a strong case, and a loss at trial was a distinct possibility," Biden said in a written statement on the case.

Biden has also served as attorney general during a period of escalating violence in Wilmington, proposing bail reform and gun control measures in Dover with mixed results.

He has pushed bail reform and gun control in Legislative Hall to mixed results. His proposal last year to ban assault weapons fizzled in Dover before it was introduced. Other legislation that would force those considered to be dangerously mentally ill to turn over firearms was defeated in the state Senate.

A Constitutional Amendment pushed by Biden that would allow judges to deny bail up to 120 days for those accused of the most violent felonies remains in the House after Senate passage last year.

Reporter Cris Barrish and Sean O'Sullivan contributed.

Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or jstarkey@delawareonline.com.