Thursday, August 15, 2013 3:49:16 AM
Supreme Court Denies Request From Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli To Stay Ruling On Sodomy Law
By RJ Aguiar
08/13/2013
Previously, this past March, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond issued a ruling that declared the state of Virginia's Crimes Against Nature Law to be unconstitutional, citing the decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas. The state's blatantly anti-gay [ http://www.towleroad.com/ken-cuccinelli/ ] attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, took it upon himself to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has yet to decide whether it will hear the appeal. In the meantime, however, Cuccinelli submitted a request for a stay, postponing the Fourth Circuit Court's decision until after the appeal.
This past Friday, according to the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/08/09/supreme-court-rejects-va-request-for-stay-on-sodomy-law/ ], Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on behalf of the entire court, denied Cuccinelli's request. The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision of whether or not to hear the case either later this year or in early 2014. Until then, Virginia's "Crimes Against Nature Law" will remain un-enforcable.
The Fourth Circuit Court's decision comes after attorneys attempted to place William Scott MacDonald, a 47-year-old man, behind bars for soliciting oral sex from a 17-year-old girl. Since no sexual acts actually took place, the state attempted to use its "Crimes Against Nature Law" to do the job. Cuccinelli and others argue that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision during Lawrence v. Texas does not apply in cases where one of the (potential) participants is a minor and the other is an adult. The Fourth Circuit Court disagreed, saying that "while the Lawrence decision prohibited Virginia from applying the sodomy law in cases of consensual sex with someone between 15 and 18, it did not prevent the state legislature from enacting laws banning all sex between adults and people in that age range."
Copyright 2013 Towleroad
http://www.towleroad.com/2013/08/supreme-court-denies-request-from-virginias-ken-cuccinelli-to-stay-ruling-on-sodomy-law.html [with comments]
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Pro-Cuccinelli PAC gets $500,000 donation from New York hedge fund executive
By Ben Pershing, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 9:20 PM
A New York hedge fund titan has kicked in $500,000 to boost the campaign of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II against businessman Terry McAuliffe, the latest sign that the Virginia governor’s race [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-race-for-virginia-governor/5366fe7a-b2ae-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_topic.html ( http://wapo.st/105ZNsw )] will be a magnet for outside cash.
Robert L. Mercer, the co-chief executive of the East Setauket, N.Y-based hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, gave a half-million dollars [ http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/money_in_details/4131?donor_id=232280 ] last week to Virginia Principles Fund, a newly-formed political action committee. The PAC, based in Chesapeake, has reported no other donors so far.
A message left at the PAC’s contact number had not been returned as of this posting. A spokesman for Mercer declined to comment on the donation. The Virginia Public Access Project, which first noted Mercer’s contribution, reports [ http://www.vpap.org/updates/show/1282 ] that “[o]fficials with the PAC told VPAP that its sole purpose is to elect Cuccinelli.”
Mercer has given generously to a wide variety of Republican causes and was one of the biggest GOP donors [ http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-24/politics/35502278_1_house-majority-pac-priorities-usa-action-republican-super-pac ] of the 2012 cycle, giving at least $5.4 million to outside groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics [ http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2012&disp=D&type=V&superonly=N ]. Mercer’s activities included funding negative ads [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/16/AR2010101602804.html ] against Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) via Concerned Taxpayers for America, a super PAC.
McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, has consistently outraised Cuccinelli, so money from outside groups could help even the financial balance of power in the contest.
© 2013 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/pro-cuccinelli-pac-gets-500000-donation-from-new-york-hedge-fund-executive/2013/08/13/6062f666-0479-11e3-88d6-d5795fab4637_story.html [with comments]
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Conflicts emerge as hurdles for Cuccinelli’s run
Aug 12, 2013
When Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli decided to run for governor, Democrats and even some establishment Republicans believed the tea party conservative’s stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change would be his greatest challenge with independent voters.
But with less than 100 days left in the race to be Virginia’s 72nd governor, Cuccinelli and his supporters find themselves defending the attorney general on another front — his actions in the office that he has refused to relinquish during his run for the Executive Mansion.
The intersection of Cuccinelli’s responsibilities as the state’s top lawyer and the demands of running for its highest office have presented conflicts that compelled the attorney general to withdraw from a number of politically sensitive cases.
They have also left him vulnerable to partisan attacks that question his initial failure to disclose some gifts, and the recent conduct of an assistant attorney general in a case involving a major Cuccinelli campaign contributor.
[... (a lot more)]
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/conflicts-emerge-as-hurdles-for-cuccinelli-s-run/article_0a3ff564-b9a1-5665-bf76-d71cda083809.html [with comments]
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IG looks into AG staffer’s actions in gas royalties case
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, declined to answer questions about the matter Tuesday morning after he detailed an education proposal at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond.
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
Cuccinelli says his office has done nothing improper
BY MICHAEL L. OWENS Bristol Herald Courier
Posted: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 6:34 am, Wed Aug 14, 2013
BRISTOL Virginia’s inspector general is investigating whether a staffer in the attorney general’s office wrongfully advised energy company lawyers in an ongoing federal court battle with regional landowners seeking natural gas royalties.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, declined to answer questions about the matter Tuesday morning after he detailed an education proposal at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond.
His campaign then issued a statement.
“We’re glad the Inspector General’s Office has been looking into this case because they’re going to find that our office acted appropriately,” Cuccinelli said in the statement.
“We’ve been cooperating with the IG at every step of the way. One of the main functions of the attorney general’s office is to defend Virginia statutes from legal challenges and that’s exactly what we we’ve done in that case,” Cuccinelli said.
It could take months to wrap up the investigation, which a Democratic state legislator called for in June after a federal magistrate judge voiced shock over emails between the staffer and lawyers for Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy and EQT Production.
“There is no timetable,” Inspector General Michael F. A. Morehart told the Bristol Herald Courier on Monday.
The investigation could end with a wide range of possible findings — from no wrongdoing, to a breach of ethics, or even a call for criminal charges.
At the heart of the investigation are five emails in which AG staffer Sharon Pigeon seems to offer legal advice on how the lawyers should fight a series of 3-year-old lawsuits seeking at least $28 million in natural gas royalties now tied up in state-mandated escrow accounts.
Pigeon is also the state’s legal adviser to the Virginia Gas and Oil Board, the state agency that permits energy companies to siphon the natural gas below multiple tracts of land before anyone has decided who owns the gas. The board also makes sure the royalties belonging to the undetermined owners are then placed in the escrow accounts.
Cuccinelli has maintained that his office’s involvement in the case is limited to any challenge against the constitutionality of state laws and he sent staffers to defend Virginia law in some of the federal hearings.
Still, speculation over the relationship between the state’s highest legal office and corporate lawyers battling Southwest Virginia landowners has become a political hot topic.
Adding to the fire is CONSOL’s role as one of the top financial contributors to Cuccinelli’s campaign. The company has funneled $111,044 into his campaign coffers since 2012, according to campaign finances watchdog Virginia Public Access Project. The company also footed $82 for Cuccinelli’s part of a January dinner with company officers, according to his most recent financial statement.
Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for governor, said the investigation “is confirmation of a disturbing trend” in the attorney general’s office and called on Cuccinelli to recuse his office “from all matters involving the dispute between energy companies and landowners as well as all matters before the Oil and Gas Board.”
The call for the state investigation also appears to fall along political lines. It was during an early June telephone conference organized by McAuliffe’s campaign that state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Lebanon, called for an in-depth look by the state inspector general.
Days later, the Republican Party of Virginia criticized Puckett by noting that he works for the Abingdon-based First Bank & Trust Co., which for years has handled the escrow account. The longer the case drags on, state Republicans argued, the more Puckett has to gain financially. Puckett agreed, but said his goal is to get the money out of the account and into the hands of regional landowners.
Morehart won’t say whether it was Puckett’s call that sparked the investigation into the AG staffer’s emails. He confirmed only that his office — tasked with handling allegations of fraud, abuse and corruption — is looking into it.
“We’re going to do this right and we’re not going to be influenced by politicians,” he said.
Copyright 2013 Richmond Times-Dispatch
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/ig-looks-into-ag-staffer-s-actions-in-gas-royalties/article_69fb024c-e265-538b-9a95-1e93acc21a79.html [with comments]
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Cuccinelli Warns Tea Party 'Worn Out or Depressed'
By David A. Patten
Tuesday, 13 Aug 2013 10:44 PM
Virginia gubernatorial candidate and conservative standard-bearer Kenneth T. Cuccinelli sounded a clear warning for his fellow Republicans Tuesday, stating in an exclusive Newsmax interview that grass-roots conservatives in the Old Dominion appear to be “pretty close” to just staying home in his battle royal against prominent Democratic fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe.
“In 2009, it was a whole lot more energetic, the whole grass roots, the tea-party effort,” Cuccinelli said. “In some parts of Virginia, the tea party has been not quite staying home, but pretty close to it. They’re just not terribly motivated, or they’re retired or worn out or depressed or something.
“And that’s a problem,” he added. “That’s a problem when principle-based voters won’t come out to volunteer.”
Editor's Note: Seniors Scoop Up Unclaimed $20,500 Checks? (See if You qualify [ http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/franklin/get_free_stuff.cfm?promo_code=F846-1 ])
Despite the apparent lack of grass-roots fervor so far, Cuccinelli said his campaign is “outworking the other side pretty badly on the ground” and “doing much better with our volunteers than they are.”
Virginia’s attorney general added: “I guess I just have such high standards and expectations from the conservative grass roots, and I know we’ve just got to continually do more.”
The reports of lackluster enthusiasm at this early stage in the campaign comes as recent campaign-finance reports indicate McAuliffe, the former head of the DNC and a long-time Democratic rainmaker, has opened up a significant fund-raising advantage over Cuccinelli.
As of June 30, McAuliffe had stuffed $6 million cash on hand into his campaign coffers -- more than double Cuccinelli’s $2.7 million. If that financial disparity continues, Cuccinelli’s campaign would have to rely more on volunteers and enthusiastic grass-roots conservatives in order to offset McAuliffe’s apparent fund-raising advantage.
If it persists, Cuccinelli’s dissatisfaction with grass-roots efforts would sound major alarms for Republicans in the 2014 midterms. Cuccinelli, considered a darling of the conservative movement, led the effort to derail the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and filed law suits to limit the expansion of EPA rule-making.
Conservative fund-raising pioneer Richard Viguerie has called Cuccinelli “as good as it gets” when it comes to conservative-movement candidates. If the tea party and other conservatives fail to fully rally behind Cuccinelli against Democratic insider McAuliffe in purple state Virginia, it would not bode well for any other Republican counting on strong grass-roots support in 2014. Many analysts expect the contest in Virginia to establish the framework for next year’s midterm elections.
Cuccinelli was careful to balance his critique, telling Newsmax that “it would be going too far” to say he’s disappointed with grass-roots efforts. He told Newsmax that his army of door-knocking volunteers had already surpassed some activity levels achieved in Virginia last September, during the closing months of the presidential election cycle. Cuccinelli has established a reputation for being able to win elections even when he is outspent by his opponent.
“We have a good effort on the ground going on,” Cuccinelli said, “but my concern is, it’s really got to be outstanding given what the president did in Virginia last year, and the money advantage my opponent has to make use of that.”
Cuccinelli’s bottom line: “We really need more people coming out -- and by that I don’t just mean on Saturday, I mean every day.” The Virginia attorney general added that he is “fairly confident” that Virginia Republicans will ultimately prevail over the vaunted Democratic get-out-the-vote machine that propelled President Obama’s re-election effort to victory in November.
Cuccinelli said his campaign may actually be raising more money than McAuliffe from within the commonwealth, but said national money from left-leaning donors is pouring into McAuliffe’s campaign.
“The environmentalists are in for him, the abortion-industry folks are in for him, the unions are in for him,” he said. “I’m not aware as yet of any particular conservative interest coming in really behind us. Party interests, yes: The Republican Governors Association has been helpful. But there’s nothing countering that.”
Also Monday, Cuccinelli unveiled a new K-12 education plan to broaden opportunities for all Virginians, called “Putting Our Kids First.” The plan would revise Virginia’s educational testing regime to emphasize critical reasoning skills over rote memorization. It would also empower parents to take their children’s education into their own hands and switch schools if necessary, rather than relegating their children to sub-standard schools, he said.
Noting that nearly a third of children in some disadvantaged regions of Virginia fail its standard learning tests, Cuccinelli said in an op-ed published in a Petersburg, Va., newspaper: “There is a disturbing disparity based on race and wealth that must be addressed if we’re going to give all our students the opportunity to succeed in the classroom and in life.”
Cuccinelli told Newsmax that providing better educational opportunities to students living in the poorer areas of the state “is long overdue.”
“It is not a coincidence that the poorest neighborhoods have the worst schools and have the highest proportion of minority students,” he said. “We’re going to go compete in those neighborhoods. We’re going to go fight for those votes, and we’re going to do it on a substantive basis. This is a no pandering zone here.”
As an example he cited Petersburg, Va., where only 59 percent of school children graduate from high school in four years, compared to 82 percent statewide.
“We want to change that,” he said. “And the only way I believe we’re really going to change that is to give parents control as long as their kids are in failing schools.”
Meg Gruber, the head of the Virginia Education Association group that represents the state’s teaching community, offered sharp criticism of Cuccinelli’s education plan Tuesday. Allowing parents the option of pulling their child out of a failing school, she said, would “divert money from public education.”
Editor's Note: Seniors Scoop Up Unclaimed $20,500 Checks? (See if You qualify [ http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/franklin/get_free_stuff.cfm?promo_code=F846-1 ])
© 2013 Newsmax
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/cuccinelli-tea-party/2013/08/13/id/520238 [with comments]
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By RJ Aguiar
08/13/2013
Previously, this past March, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond issued a ruling that declared the state of Virginia's Crimes Against Nature Law to be unconstitutional, citing the decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas. The state's blatantly anti-gay [ http://www.towleroad.com/ken-cuccinelli/ ] attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, took it upon himself to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has yet to decide whether it will hear the appeal. In the meantime, however, Cuccinelli submitted a request for a stay, postponing the Fourth Circuit Court's decision until after the appeal.
This past Friday, according to the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/08/09/supreme-court-rejects-va-request-for-stay-on-sodomy-law/ ], Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on behalf of the entire court, denied Cuccinelli's request. The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision of whether or not to hear the case either later this year or in early 2014. Until then, Virginia's "Crimes Against Nature Law" will remain un-enforcable.
The Fourth Circuit Court's decision comes after attorneys attempted to place William Scott MacDonald, a 47-year-old man, behind bars for soliciting oral sex from a 17-year-old girl. Since no sexual acts actually took place, the state attempted to use its "Crimes Against Nature Law" to do the job. Cuccinelli and others argue that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision during Lawrence v. Texas does not apply in cases where one of the (potential) participants is a minor and the other is an adult. The Fourth Circuit Court disagreed, saying that "while the Lawrence decision prohibited Virginia from applying the sodomy law in cases of consensual sex with someone between 15 and 18, it did not prevent the state legislature from enacting laws banning all sex between adults and people in that age range."
Copyright 2013 Towleroad
http://www.towleroad.com/2013/08/supreme-court-denies-request-from-virginias-ken-cuccinelli-to-stay-ruling-on-sodomy-law.html [with comments]
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Pro-Cuccinelli PAC gets $500,000 donation from New York hedge fund executive
By Ben Pershing, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 9:20 PM
A New York hedge fund titan has kicked in $500,000 to boost the campaign of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II against businessman Terry McAuliffe, the latest sign that the Virginia governor’s race [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-race-for-virginia-governor/5366fe7a-b2ae-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_topic.html ( http://wapo.st/105ZNsw )] will be a magnet for outside cash.
Robert L. Mercer, the co-chief executive of the East Setauket, N.Y-based hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, gave a half-million dollars [ http://www.vpap.org/committees/profile/money_in_details/4131?donor_id=232280 ] last week to Virginia Principles Fund, a newly-formed political action committee. The PAC, based in Chesapeake, has reported no other donors so far.
A message left at the PAC’s contact number had not been returned as of this posting. A spokesman for Mercer declined to comment on the donation. The Virginia Public Access Project, which first noted Mercer’s contribution, reports [ http://www.vpap.org/updates/show/1282 ] that “[o]fficials with the PAC told VPAP that its sole purpose is to elect Cuccinelli.”
Mercer has given generously to a wide variety of Republican causes and was one of the biggest GOP donors [ http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-24/politics/35502278_1_house-majority-pac-priorities-usa-action-republican-super-pac ] of the 2012 cycle, giving at least $5.4 million to outside groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics [ http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2012&disp=D&type=V&superonly=N ]. Mercer’s activities included funding negative ads [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/16/AR2010101602804.html ] against Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) via Concerned Taxpayers for America, a super PAC.
McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, has consistently outraised Cuccinelli, so money from outside groups could help even the financial balance of power in the contest.
© 2013 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/pro-cuccinelli-pac-gets-500000-donation-from-new-york-hedge-fund-executive/2013/08/13/6062f666-0479-11e3-88d6-d5795fab4637_story.html [with comments]
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Conflicts emerge as hurdles for Cuccinelli’s run
Aug 12, 2013
When Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli decided to run for governor, Democrats and even some establishment Republicans believed the tea party conservative’s stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change would be his greatest challenge with independent voters.
But with less than 100 days left in the race to be Virginia’s 72nd governor, Cuccinelli and his supporters find themselves defending the attorney general on another front — his actions in the office that he has refused to relinquish during his run for the Executive Mansion.
The intersection of Cuccinelli’s responsibilities as the state’s top lawyer and the demands of running for its highest office have presented conflicts that compelled the attorney general to withdraw from a number of politically sensitive cases.
They have also left him vulnerable to partisan attacks that question his initial failure to disclose some gifts, and the recent conduct of an assistant attorney general in a case involving a major Cuccinelli campaign contributor.
[... (a lot more)]
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/conflicts-emerge-as-hurdles-for-cuccinelli-s-run/article_0a3ff564-b9a1-5665-bf76-d71cda083809.html [with comments]
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IG looks into AG staffer’s actions in gas royalties case
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, declined to answer questions about the matter Tuesday morning after he detailed an education proposal at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond.
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
Cuccinelli says his office has done nothing improper
BY MICHAEL L. OWENS Bristol Herald Courier
Posted: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 6:34 am, Wed Aug 14, 2013
BRISTOL Virginia’s inspector general is investigating whether a staffer in the attorney general’s office wrongfully advised energy company lawyers in an ongoing federal court battle with regional landowners seeking natural gas royalties.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, declined to answer questions about the matter Tuesday morning after he detailed an education proposal at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond.
His campaign then issued a statement.
“We’re glad the Inspector General’s Office has been looking into this case because they’re going to find that our office acted appropriately,” Cuccinelli said in the statement.
“We’ve been cooperating with the IG at every step of the way. One of the main functions of the attorney general’s office is to defend Virginia statutes from legal challenges and that’s exactly what we we’ve done in that case,” Cuccinelli said.
It could take months to wrap up the investigation, which a Democratic state legislator called for in June after a federal magistrate judge voiced shock over emails between the staffer and lawyers for Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy and EQT Production.
“There is no timetable,” Inspector General Michael F. A. Morehart told the Bristol Herald Courier on Monday.
The investigation could end with a wide range of possible findings — from no wrongdoing, to a breach of ethics, or even a call for criminal charges.
At the heart of the investigation are five emails in which AG staffer Sharon Pigeon seems to offer legal advice on how the lawyers should fight a series of 3-year-old lawsuits seeking at least $28 million in natural gas royalties now tied up in state-mandated escrow accounts.
Pigeon is also the state’s legal adviser to the Virginia Gas and Oil Board, the state agency that permits energy companies to siphon the natural gas below multiple tracts of land before anyone has decided who owns the gas. The board also makes sure the royalties belonging to the undetermined owners are then placed in the escrow accounts.
Cuccinelli has maintained that his office’s involvement in the case is limited to any challenge against the constitutionality of state laws and he sent staffers to defend Virginia law in some of the federal hearings.
Still, speculation over the relationship between the state’s highest legal office and corporate lawyers battling Southwest Virginia landowners has become a political hot topic.
Adding to the fire is CONSOL’s role as one of the top financial contributors to Cuccinelli’s campaign. The company has funneled $111,044 into his campaign coffers since 2012, according to campaign finances watchdog Virginia Public Access Project. The company also footed $82 for Cuccinelli’s part of a January dinner with company officers, according to his most recent financial statement.
Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for governor, said the investigation “is confirmation of a disturbing trend” in the attorney general’s office and called on Cuccinelli to recuse his office “from all matters involving the dispute between energy companies and landowners as well as all matters before the Oil and Gas Board.”
The call for the state investigation also appears to fall along political lines. It was during an early June telephone conference organized by McAuliffe’s campaign that state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Lebanon, called for an in-depth look by the state inspector general.
Days later, the Republican Party of Virginia criticized Puckett by noting that he works for the Abingdon-based First Bank & Trust Co., which for years has handled the escrow account. The longer the case drags on, state Republicans argued, the more Puckett has to gain financially. Puckett agreed, but said his goal is to get the money out of the account and into the hands of regional landowners.
Morehart won’t say whether it was Puckett’s call that sparked the investigation into the AG staffer’s emails. He confirmed only that his office — tasked with handling allegations of fraud, abuse and corruption — is looking into it.
“We’re going to do this right and we’re not going to be influenced by politicians,” he said.
Copyright 2013 Richmond Times-Dispatch
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/ig-looks-into-ag-staffer-s-actions-in-gas-royalties/article_69fb024c-e265-538b-9a95-1e93acc21a79.html [with comments]
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Cuccinelli Warns Tea Party 'Worn Out or Depressed'
By David A. Patten
Tuesday, 13 Aug 2013 10:44 PM
Virginia gubernatorial candidate and conservative standard-bearer Kenneth T. Cuccinelli sounded a clear warning for his fellow Republicans Tuesday, stating in an exclusive Newsmax interview that grass-roots conservatives in the Old Dominion appear to be “pretty close” to just staying home in his battle royal against prominent Democratic fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe.
“In 2009, it was a whole lot more energetic, the whole grass roots, the tea-party effort,” Cuccinelli said. “In some parts of Virginia, the tea party has been not quite staying home, but pretty close to it. They’re just not terribly motivated, or they’re retired or worn out or depressed or something.
“And that’s a problem,” he added. “That’s a problem when principle-based voters won’t come out to volunteer.”
Editor's Note: Seniors Scoop Up Unclaimed $20,500 Checks? (See if You qualify [ http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/franklin/get_free_stuff.cfm?promo_code=F846-1 ])
Despite the apparent lack of grass-roots fervor so far, Cuccinelli said his campaign is “outworking the other side pretty badly on the ground” and “doing much better with our volunteers than they are.”
Virginia’s attorney general added: “I guess I just have such high standards and expectations from the conservative grass roots, and I know we’ve just got to continually do more.”
The reports of lackluster enthusiasm at this early stage in the campaign comes as recent campaign-finance reports indicate McAuliffe, the former head of the DNC and a long-time Democratic rainmaker, has opened up a significant fund-raising advantage over Cuccinelli.
As of June 30, McAuliffe had stuffed $6 million cash on hand into his campaign coffers -- more than double Cuccinelli’s $2.7 million. If that financial disparity continues, Cuccinelli’s campaign would have to rely more on volunteers and enthusiastic grass-roots conservatives in order to offset McAuliffe’s apparent fund-raising advantage.
If it persists, Cuccinelli’s dissatisfaction with grass-roots efforts would sound major alarms for Republicans in the 2014 midterms. Cuccinelli, considered a darling of the conservative movement, led the effort to derail the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and filed law suits to limit the expansion of EPA rule-making.
Conservative fund-raising pioneer Richard Viguerie has called Cuccinelli “as good as it gets” when it comes to conservative-movement candidates. If the tea party and other conservatives fail to fully rally behind Cuccinelli against Democratic insider McAuliffe in purple state Virginia, it would not bode well for any other Republican counting on strong grass-roots support in 2014. Many analysts expect the contest in Virginia to establish the framework for next year’s midterm elections.
Cuccinelli was careful to balance his critique, telling Newsmax that “it would be going too far” to say he’s disappointed with grass-roots efforts. He told Newsmax that his army of door-knocking volunteers had already surpassed some activity levels achieved in Virginia last September, during the closing months of the presidential election cycle. Cuccinelli has established a reputation for being able to win elections even when he is outspent by his opponent.
“We have a good effort on the ground going on,” Cuccinelli said, “but my concern is, it’s really got to be outstanding given what the president did in Virginia last year, and the money advantage my opponent has to make use of that.”
Cuccinelli’s bottom line: “We really need more people coming out -- and by that I don’t just mean on Saturday, I mean every day.” The Virginia attorney general added that he is “fairly confident” that Virginia Republicans will ultimately prevail over the vaunted Democratic get-out-the-vote machine that propelled President Obama’s re-election effort to victory in November.
Cuccinelli said his campaign may actually be raising more money than McAuliffe from within the commonwealth, but said national money from left-leaning donors is pouring into McAuliffe’s campaign.
“The environmentalists are in for him, the abortion-industry folks are in for him, the unions are in for him,” he said. “I’m not aware as yet of any particular conservative interest coming in really behind us. Party interests, yes: The Republican Governors Association has been helpful. But there’s nothing countering that.”
Also Monday, Cuccinelli unveiled a new K-12 education plan to broaden opportunities for all Virginians, called “Putting Our Kids First.” The plan would revise Virginia’s educational testing regime to emphasize critical reasoning skills over rote memorization. It would also empower parents to take their children’s education into their own hands and switch schools if necessary, rather than relegating their children to sub-standard schools, he said.
Noting that nearly a third of children in some disadvantaged regions of Virginia fail its standard learning tests, Cuccinelli said in an op-ed published in a Petersburg, Va., newspaper: “There is a disturbing disparity based on race and wealth that must be addressed if we’re going to give all our students the opportunity to succeed in the classroom and in life.”
Cuccinelli told Newsmax that providing better educational opportunities to students living in the poorer areas of the state “is long overdue.”
“It is not a coincidence that the poorest neighborhoods have the worst schools and have the highest proportion of minority students,” he said. “We’re going to go compete in those neighborhoods. We’re going to go fight for those votes, and we’re going to do it on a substantive basis. This is a no pandering zone here.”
As an example he cited Petersburg, Va., where only 59 percent of school children graduate from high school in four years, compared to 82 percent statewide.
“We want to change that,” he said. “And the only way I believe we’re really going to change that is to give parents control as long as their kids are in failing schools.”
Meg Gruber, the head of the Virginia Education Association group that represents the state’s teaching community, offered sharp criticism of Cuccinelli’s education plan Tuesday. Allowing parents the option of pulling their child out of a failing school, she said, would “divert money from public education.”
Editor's Note: Seniors Scoop Up Unclaimed $20,500 Checks? (See if You qualify [ http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/franklin/get_free_stuff.cfm?promo_code=F846-1 ])
© 2013 Newsmax
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/cuccinelli-tea-party/2013/08/13/id/520238 [with comments]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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