After Cuccinelli Loss, Conservatives Suddenly Realize Campaign Spending Is a Problem

BY JOSH ISRAEL/Think Progress

Tuesday, as he conceded defeat in the Virginia governor’s race, Ken Cuccinelli II (R) told supporters that he had come closer than polls had indicated “despite being outspent by an unprecedented $15 million.” But while he and his conservative supporters now lament that money cost them the victory they felt they deserved, they have long been the defenders of the system of campaign finance non-regulation in Virginia and nationally.

Conservative groups like the Center for Competitive Politics have long argued that “money doesn’t buy elections.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), whose own political action committee gave $5,000 to Cuccinelli’s campaign, has for years advocated for an end to limits on campaign contributions, believing “money is speech.” While the 2010 Citizens United ruling weakened federal contribution limits, Virginia has long been one of a handful of stateswith no limits whatsoever. The only restriction Cuccinelli supported over his time in the state senate was on contributions from foreign nationals.

Because of the Old Dominion’s anything goes system, candidates can accept millions of dollars from any individual or corporation seeking to ensure their victory. While Governor-Elect Terry McAuliffe raised over $32 million, Cuccinelli himself reported at least $19 million in donations — including hundreds of thousands from fossil fuel companies who preferred a climate-change denier to a candidate focused on green energy.

Leading up to the election, the Cuccinelli campaign repeatedly highlighted the money gap, attacking McAuliffe for as being “bought and paid for,” “exclusively driven by big money,” and “willing to sell his out Virginia families to the highest bidder.” When McAuliffe embraced campaign finance reform in an April interview, agreeing that “there’s just way too much money in politics,” Cuccinelli’s campaign pooh-poohed the idea as “hypocrisy.” “McAuliffe complaining about money in politics is the equivalent of Bobby Knight criticizing cursing among college basketball coaches,” they answered.

In campaign post-mortems, conservatives from Linda Chavez to Ralph Reedboth echoed the candidate’s concession and blamed Cuccinelli’s loss on money. Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, lamented that the pro-corporate U.S. Chamber of Commerce went from making seven-figure investments in the 2009 campaign for Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) but spent nothing on Cuccinelli. “Just think what would have happened if the business and donor classes of the Republican Party would have helped.” Ben Domenech blamed the “donor class” as “sore losers” who threw a “temper tantrum” by not opening up their wallets for a more conservative nominee.

As Zack Beauchamp noted Thursday, Cuccinelli got “killed in the fundraising race,” in large part because business leaders did not care for his anti-corporatist stances against a tax increase to increase transportation funding and corporate welfare. Cuccinelli embraced anti-government populist ideas — as well associally conservative ones — but not the priorities of some business interests. Had Cuccinelli embraced their agenda, as McDonnell did in 2009, others in the business community might well have supported him as enthusiastically as the energy sector did.

In an October press release called “Big Money,” the Cuccinelli campaign highlighted a fundraising appeal, sent by the chairman of the University of Virginia Council of Foundations to a hedge fund manager, explaining that he hoped to enlist a large number of UVA alums to support McAuliffe. “The more influential names we have associated with our shared voice the more likely we are going to have the future Governor’s ear,” he wrote.

Therein lies the problem. If money really is the determining factor in who wins elections, candidates who agree with powerful moneyed interests like the Chamber will always have the upper hand over those who do not. And as Virginia saw with McDonnell’s Star Scientific scandal, those wealthy benefactors will be the ones with the freest access to the politicians they bankroll. And if states are the laboratories of democracy, as the late Justice Louis Brandeissuggested, the experiment of unlimited money in Virginia might be a warning sign to conservatives nationally that “anything goes” campaign finance laws may not always work out in their favor.

Support For Gun Regulation Helps McAuliffe, Opposition Hurts Cuccinelli In Virginia Race

BY REBECCA LEBER/Think Progress

Even in a state that has seen heavy campaign cash from the National Rifle Association, the gubernatorial candidate with the stronger stand against gun violence has a 7 point advantage, according to a new Public Policy Polling pollcommissioned by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

When asked if Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe’s position to ban guns on college campuses helps or hurts him, a plurality of 40 percent said they were more likely to back him while 29 percent said they were less likely. Asked similarly about Republican opponent Ken Cuccinelli’s position against background checks, 47 percent of likely voters said they were less likely to back him and only 18 percent said they were more likely.

According to the NRA’s own measure of the candidates’ gun positions, McAuliffe and Cuccinelli rank “F” and “A,” respectively. Cuccinelli has made no attempt to hide his NRA credentials during his campaign for governor, either, boasting at the site of a mass shooting that he is against expanding background checks.

Despite Ken Cuccinelli’s Claims, Records Show Deep Involvement In Bob McDonnell Ethics Controversy

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R-VA) company and family may have received an additional $120,000 from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. beyond the tens of thousands in gifts previously reported — payments which are already the subject of both federal and state investigations. McDonnell’sendorsed would-be successor, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) denied any involvement in the controversy on Monday, but his connections to Williams and Star Scientific run broad and deep.

Star Scientific Inc. is a controversial Virginia-basedcompany that has moved from tobacco to dietary supplement manufacturing. As Williams, the company’s CEO since 1999, gave gifts and campaign cash to McDonnell, the governor and his wife helped to promote the company’s scientifically-unproven supplements.

Though as of 2012, Star Scientific has reported annual losses for a decade, just one Virginia elected official or candidate invested upwards of $10,000 in the company: Cuccinelli. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Star Scientific is the only significant holding he has reported since his first filing in 2003. Cuccinelli, whose position makes him the Commonwealth of Virginia’s lawyer, did not follow state disclosure law and disclose this investment in a timely manner. After the controversy became public, he sold off the stock.

Cuccinelli also initially failed to fully disclose the gifts he received from Williams — omissions he called “inadvertent.” Williams provided the attorney general with free lodging at his homes,$6,711 worth of supplements, transportation to New York City and Kentucky, and an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner. All totaled, Cuccinelli reported accepting at least $18,893 in gifts from Williams between 2009 and 2012.

Star Scientific also may have benefited from having Cuccinelli as attorney general. In 2010, Cuccinelli issued an official advisory opinion stating that the use of electronic cigarettes does not qualify as smoking and is thus permissible in public places. Cuccinelli has denied any conflict of interest, though the ruling was a boon to companies in the e-cig business — including Star Scientific. Additionally, his office has essentially ignored a court case brought by the company in July 2011 — though he claims that was “nothing unusual.” Star Scientific is challenging a $1.7 million tax bill, which remains unpaid while the case languishes. He hasreportedly refused to say whether he ever discussed the case with Williams. Though his office initially denied any conflict of interest, he later recused himself.

It is unclear why Cuccinelli would invest so heavily in a struggling company. But his decision to put so much of his money into a tobacco company, along with his record opposing Obamacare,public smoking bans, HIV/AIDS and sex education, and birth control, renders dubious hiscampaign promise to empower families “to make the best possible health care decisions.”

Cuccinelli Endorses Running Mate, But Won’t Defend Anything He’s Ever Said

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), the Republican nominee for governor, endorsed his newly-nominated running mate, Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., but refused to say whether he agreed with Jackson’s myriad controversial comments.

Cuccinelli told a crowd in Abingdon, VA on Monday that he wants Jackson, as Lt. Governor, breaking ties in the currently split Virginia Senate: “I don’t need to know what the subject matter that’s going to tie up 20-20 that the LG can vote on will be. I’m confident that we’re going to get the right vote every single time out of E.W. Jackson. So I’m glad he’s on this ticket, too.”

But in a statement to the Virginia Pilot, Cuccinelli also said he would not answer questions about his new running mate’s views. “We are not defending any of our running mates’ statements now or in the future,” he noted, adding “The people of Virginia need to get comfortable with each candidate individually.”

Given the panic and criticism from some Republicans over Jackson’s surprise victory at Saturday’s Republican Party of Virginia nominating convention, it is unsurprising that Cuccinelli wants to keep his running mate at arm’s length. But their arch-conservative views on key issues seem largely identical:

	Jackson	Cuccinelli
LGBT Rights	Jackson opposes LGBT equality,claiming, “Homosexuality is a horrible sin, it poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies; it brings the judgment of God unlike very few things that we can think of.”	Cuccinelli opposes LGBT equality,claiming, “When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believebrings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.”
Planned Parenthood	Jackson has attacked Planned Parenthood, calling it “more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.”	Cuccinelli has frequently attackedPlanned Parenthood, accusing them of having an “open willingness to participate in human trafficking,” and has suggested thefact that abortion clinics in Virginia are in urban areas with large African American populations is an example of white racism.
Health care	Jackson does not believe Virginia should comply with the Obamacare law, claiming, “Virginia is duty bound to DEFY NOT COMPLY with any federal encroachment on the rights and freedom of our people. Working families across the Commonwealth are disappointed that a Republican led General Assembly decided to COMPLY and NOT DEFY a law that will greatly hurt the economy and health care options affecting all Virginians.”	After Cuccinelli’s failed challengeto Obamacare in federal court, hesuggested Virginia might not need to comply with the law: “It’s not like there’s criminal penalties out there — it becomes a power struggle,” he noted, adding, “There have been periods of time when states have just thrown their hands up and said, ‘We’re not going to do this’… It’s still possible, but it’s outside the expected legal structure.
President Obama	Jackson has attacked President Obama for having “Muslim sensibilities,” claiming Obama “sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective.” He called Obama an anti-Semite, blaming “his Muslim associations and his long period of mentorship under Jeremiah Wright.”	Cuccinelli dabbled in birtherism in 2010, saying, “Someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.” He quicklybacked down.

For his part, Jackson sees Cuccinelli as an ideological soul mate. In a March posting on hiscampaign website, entitled “Ken Cuccinelli Is Right,” he wrote: “As an American and a Virginian whose ancestors were deemed by some to be less than human, I am proud to stand with a man who has the courage to speak to our consciences. As the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, I will be proud to help Ken Cuccinelli bring common sense values and governance to Richmond. If we are elected in November, KEN AND I WILL FIGHT FOR EVERY VIRGINIAN’S RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.”

Virginia Republican revives the 47% argument in new book

Morgan Whitaker/Politics Nation

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the likely Republican nominee for governor, will release a book next month that includes what many are calling the new 47% argument of 2013.

In the new book, “The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty,” Cuccinelli argues that ”bad politicians set out to grow government” to “make people dependent on government.”

The reasoning is strikingly similar to Romney, who was caught on camera last fall complaining of the “47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what” because they “are dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”

Romney also said at the time he would “never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

In the excerpts published by the Washington Post Cuccinelli does not go that far, instead accusing the politicians who choose to expand government services of nefarious motives.

In one excerpt he writes, “Sometimes bad politicians set out to grow government in order to increase their own power and influence. This phenomenon doesn’t just happen in Washington; it happens at all levels of government. The amazing thing is that they often grow government without protest from citizens, and sometimes they even get buy-in from citizens—at least from the ones getting the goodies.”

“One of their favorite ways to increase their power is by creating programs that dispense subsidized government benefits, such as Medicare,  Social Security,  and outright welfare (Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, and the like),” he writes. “These programs make people dependent on government. And once people are dependent, they feel they can’t afford to have the programs taken away, no matter how inefficient, poorly run, or costly to the rest of society.”

“Citizens will vote for those politicians who promise more benefits each year, rather than the fiscally responsible politicians who try to point out that such programs are unsustainable and will eventually bankrupt the states or the nation.”

Cuccinelli even criticizes those within his own party, calling out George W. Bush for his support of Medicare Part D. “It was the largest entitlement program program in forty years, and it was created under Republican president George W. Bush and passed by a Republican-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate in 2003,” he writes. “While there may have been some good intentions involved, this was George W. Bush using taxpayer dollars to buy seniors’ votes for his 2004 reelection campaign, pure and simple. And the Republicans in Congress generall y went right along with it.”

Romney’s now infamous comments about the 47% are widely seen as one of the major factors contributing to his loss. A poll taken about a month before election day found a majority of Americans had a negative reaction to the comments.

Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz pointed to the 47% line as major reason that Romney lost the Latino vote by such a wide margin.

“You want to know why Barack Obama won 71% of the Hispanic vote? Tone on immigration contributed, but I think far more important was ’47%,’” Cruz said at an event a few weeks after the election, although polling shows that Romney’s numbers with Latino voters didn’t change drastically after the comments.

This new book includes the latest in a series of controversial statements from Cuccinnelli since announcing his campaign for governor. Earlier this month he said that catholics should be willing to be arrested in order to protest the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act, even comparing that issue to the civil rights protests of Martin Luther King.

Recent polling shows Cuccinelli is statistically tied with his likely Democratic rival in the 2013 Governor’s race, Terry McAuliffe. Many speculate that Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling may enter the race as an Independent.

Virginia attorney general instructs state colleges to stop protecting gay students from discrimination.

By Igor Volsky Just weeks after Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) refused to renew an executive order that would have protected gay and lesbian state workers from discrimination, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is asking the state’s colleges and universities “to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” Cuccinelli — who has previously argued “homosexual acts are…intrinsically wrong” — wrote a letter to all of the state’s public colleges and universities:

“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ’sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” he wrote. Colleges that have included such language in their policies — which include all of Virginia’s leading schools — have done so “without proper authority” and should “take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia,” Cuccinelli wrote.

Most colleges protect gays from anti-discrimination and violence. Earlier this month, students at John Carroll University, a Jesuit college in Cleveland Ohio, staged a sit-in to protest “the university’s decisions not to include the protection of sexual orientation of in its anti-discrimination statement.” Other Jesuit universities, like “Canisius College, College of the Holy Cross, Georgetown University, Gonzaga University, Le Moyne College, and St. Louis University” all include “sexual orientation in their anti-discrimination policies.” The blogger Joe.My.God. writes, “Virginia is going to have a VERY hard time attracting top students and faculty after this, not to mention the inevitable backlash against people or companies willing to work with the Virginia higher education system.”

M.C.L.comment: I told you liberals when you stay at home and let the misinform and stupid to vote this is what you get, you got a right wing governor that's trying to turn back the social clock 40 years.