Ken Cuccinelli: the Anti-Chris Christie

Ken Cuccinelli may be the darling of the spittle flecked Christofascists who want a Christian theocracy in Virginia and the knuckle draggers of the Tea Party, but the recent polling suggests that Cuccinelli - or Kookinelli, as I prefer to call him - isn't gaining need traction among moderates and independents to win in November (I hope this trend continues).  In stark contrast, Republican Chris Christie appears headed towards a landslide reelection in New Jersey.  Some suggest that Kookinelli should learn a thing or two from Christie.  I would argue that such a transformation is impossible for Kookinelli, especially given his documented record of extremism.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the night and day differences between the two GOP candidates.  Here are highlights:

Chris Christie and Ken Cuccinelli are both New Jersey natives, Republicans, and their party’s gubernatorial nominee in their respective states. Beyond that, they share little else.

Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is a moderate conservative cruising to reelection; Cuccinelli, currently the attorney general of Virginia, is the darling of the GOP base and not much more. Christie has a double-digit lead over his Democratic challenger, State Senator Barbara Buono; Cuccinelli is down by about five points to former Democratic National Committee Chair, Clinton crony, and alleged grifter Terry McAuliffe, according to the latest pair of polls.

Christie’s strength in the reliably blue Garden State and Cuccinelli’s weakness in the Old Dominion are about persona, policy, and political reality. Christie knows that he’s the governor of a state that has consistently gone for Democratic presidential candidates over the last two decades. On the other hand, Cuccinelli fantasizes that Virginia voted for John McCain and Mitt Romney, and that ethnic-slurring George Allen made it to the Senate.

But Cuccinelli’s problems go deeper than that. Right now, he is underperforming even Romney’s showing in Virginia. Romney lost the state, but still managed to win its upscale voters and white women—Cuccinelli is losing both blocs to McAuliffe.

Cuccinelli owned stock in Star Scientific, the very same company whose chief, Jonnie Williams, showered both McDonnell and Cuccinelli with gifts—gifts that Cuccinelli has refused to return in kind or in cash. In all, only $18,000 or so is involved, and yet Cuccinelli cannot find it in himself to cut a check. Not surprisingly, McAuliffe hammers away on this sore point, leaving Cuccinelli trailing and the story festering.

More worrisome for Republicans is Cuccinelli’s incapability of eliding over hot-button social issues. As Virginia’s outgoing Republican Lt. Governor Bill Bolling sees it, Cuccinelli is a “rigid ideologue who thrives on conflict and confrontation and tends to be drawn to the more controversial and divisive issues of the day.”

Christie, meanwhile, is tradition-minded but not mired in debates over ultrasound wands or sodomy. He flatly stated that sexual orientation is a matter of biological predisposition.  . . . . He hasn’t dabbled with birtherism, in contrast to Cuccinelli.

Christie is of the modern world; Cuccinelli less so. For Republicans in Virginia and nationally, that is a problem. As one Republican White House veteran and Virginian put it, “the race is between a crook and a kook, and I expect the crook to win.”

Sadly for Cuccinelli, while voters may say “ugh” about “the Macker,” they have yet to walk away from him. Much as Cuccinelli may try to talk about taxes and roads, not enough voters are buying. A well-funded McAuliffe ad blitz is cementing an image of Virginia’s attorney general as fixated on social issues.

Cuccinelli’s struggle is compounded by the fact that Virginia’s demographics dramatically shifted, making it emblematic of the New South. Indeed, nothing tells the story better than a recent Quinnipiac Poll showing Hillary with comfortable leads over Christie and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup. She polls ahead of Christie by nine, and crushes Cruz by almost 20 points.

The times are changing, and the question for Cuccinelli and the Republicans is whether they can change with them. The GOP cannot continue to behave as if the whole country were a Republican primary—not if it endeavors to recapture the presidency.

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The Other Race Virginians Need to Watch This Year

The following is a cross posting of an op-ed I wrote at LGBTQ Nation that looks at GOP attorney general Mark Obenshain's dishonest effort to paint himself as a moderate.  The man is just as extreme as Ken Cuccinelli and the utterly insane "Bishop" E. W. Jackson.  Here's the piece in its entirety:

Given its off year elections, Virginia is attracting a good deal of attention among political observers.  LGBT Virginians, women and minorities likewise ought to be paying close attention. Why?  Because the Republican statewide ticket — which was nominated at a convention dominated by far right religious extremists and Tea Party fanatics (who usually also identify as “conservative Christians”) — is the most extreme in Virginia’s history.

There has been a great deal of media coverage of the GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli who has a bizarre fixation on reinstating Virginia’s “crimes against nature statute,” is a climate change denier, and who has shown himself to be ethically challenged at best as he has taken gifts and campaign contributions for those who have sought a quid pro quo from the Attorney General’s office, which Cuccinelli currently occupies.

Likewise, there has been plentiful media coverage on Lt. Governor candidate E.W. “Bishop” Jackson who has made off the fall anti-gay statements, insulted civil rights leaders and generally shown himself to inhabit some strange alternate universe from sentient persons.
In fact, Jackson makes AFA’s Bryan Fischer and FRC’s Tony Perkins appear to be fairly rational in comparison.

Lacking in similar coverage has been the GOP nominee for Attorney General, Mark Obenshain, who, if one knows his background and voting record in the Virginia General Assembly is every bit as extreme and – I would argue insane – as Cuccinelli and “Bishop” Jackson.

Despite his extremism as evidenced by his past record, Obenshain has been trying to reinvent himself as a “moderate” and even claimed that he doesn’t support discrimination against anyone (more on this later).
As a recent article in the Virginian Pilot noted, the attorney general race deserves much closer attention than it is currently receiving for several reasons.
First, the next attorney general will help frame the national perception of Virginia, and his name is likely to appear at the top of the 2017 ballot because historically Virginia’s attorney general has run, or resigned to run, for governor in every election, including this one, dating to 1993.
Second, under Virginia law, the Attorney General interprets Virginia’s statutory law and determines which laws meet constitutional muster under both the Virginia Constitution and the United States Constitution.

For example, Obenshain has pledged to continue fighting President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”), either by filing briefs in a pending legal challenge or by filing a new lawsuit.

Also, his Democrat opponent, Mark Herring, has said he wouldn’t defend Virginia’s anti-sodomy statute because it’s clearly unconstitutional while Obenshain will likely seek to defend it despite trying to pretend to be noncommittal.

Like Cuccinelli, Obenshain refuses to recognize the full scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas and is so thoroughly under the thumb of the Christofascists at The Family Foundation (an affiliate of Focus on the Family and registered hate group, Family Research Council) that he will no doubt refuse to accept the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuits’s decision striking down Virginia’s sodomy statute for a second time.

Why do I come to this conclusions? Obenshain’s record in the Virginia General Assembly confirms that he is every bit as extreme as Ken Cuccinelli and “Bishop” Jackson.

Here’s an overview of Obenshain’s record:

1.   Obenshain has previously introduced a bill that would have required any woman in Virginia who has a miscarriage without a doctor present, to file a report it within 24 hours to the police or otherwise risk going to jail for a full year.  Obenshain’s bill read in part as follows:

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

For those unfamiliar with Virginia law, a Class 1 misdemeanor cares a 1 year jail sentence and a fine of $2,500.00.

2.  Obenshain has supported a “personhood” bill that would outlaw all abortions and grant full constitutional rights to a fetus from the moment of conception.

3. In 2013 Obenshain sponsored a bill requiring limited types of photo identification as part of the Virginia GOP’s active effort to disenfranchise minority voters. Acceptable forms of ID include a government-issued photo ID that includes their address, a photo ID from a Virginia college or university, or a workplace ID featuring a photo.  Regular Voter ID cards would not be sufficient.

4.  Obenshain has consistently voted against Democratic measures that would assure employment non-discrimination protections for homosexual state employees under Virginia’s anti-discrimination law.

5.  In January, 2013, Obenshain walked off the Senate floor rather than support former Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland, who is openly gay, for a Richmond General District Court judgeship.  In 2012, other GOP extremists in the House of Delagate blocked Thorne-Begland’s appointment but were out maneuvered by the Richmond Circuit Court judges who appointed him on an interim bases after Thorne-Begland received unanimous backing from the five largest mega-law firms based in Virginia.

In short, despite his recent pretenses, Obenshain is anti-gay, anti-minority and anti-women’s rights. 

If Virginians want a quasi-theocracy in Virginia, they can vote for Obenshain and his fellow extremists on the GOP ticket.  If, instead, they believe in the principles of Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers from Virginia, their choice is clear: vote for Mark Herring for Attorney Genaral, Terry McAuliffe for Governor, and Ralph Northam for Lt. Governor.
 

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More GOP Hysteria Over Boyd Marcus Defection from GOP

The Republican Party of Virginia has nominated the most extreme - and my opinion mentally ill - slate of statewide candidates in Virginia's history thanks to Ken Cuccinelli's maneuver to have the nominating process done through a state wide convention dominated by Christofascists and Tea Party lunatics.  Anyone sane should have seen that many long time Republicans simply would not be able to hold their noses and vote for individuals better suited for incarceration in a mental institution that state wide elected office.  Among those fleeing this GOP created nightmare is Boyd Marcus (pictured at left), a long time GOP operative who simply could not stomach the thought of Ken Cuccinelli in the Governors mansion.   The fall out of this notable defection continues as noted in a column in the Richmond Times Dispatch.  Here are column excerpts:

To Virginia Republicans, he is the “Prince of Darkness.” To veteran reporters, he is the “smiling assassin.” His watchwords, from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” were framed on his office wall: “Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.”

Boyd Marcus runs Republican campaigns. He can run opponents into the ground with tough talking points and slasher direct-mail. He ran state government as Gov. Jim Gilmore’s chief of staff. He ran off allies as partisan enforcer of the budget-busting no-car-tax plan.
 

Marcus is on the run from a Republican Party he no longer recognizes.  He is doing the unthinkable: crossing over to the Democrats. He’s taking a job, paying up to five-figures a month, as a strategist for gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe. It follows a months-long courtship, direct and indirect, that accelerated after the fight over new road taxes.

Marcus, a reflexive Republican, said in a written statement he is supporting McAuliffe, a reflexive Democrat, because the candidate is a pragmatic bipartisan. Marcus also cited McAuliffe’s business credentials . . . .

The Marcus defection is no laughing matter.  For Republicans, it feeds a troubling narrative about Ken Cuccinelli that he, alone, composed: The Republican candidate for governor — heartthrob of tea partiers and Rand Paul-ites who have no use for suburban, business-oriented R’s such as Marcus — does not work or play well with others. This is a dominant feature in the broad-strokes portrait Democrats are painting of Cuccinelli in their nonstop television and online advertising.

Cuccinelli depicts the Marcus break as a grab for cash by a guy who could use some. Further, Cuccinelli says Marcus is motivated by spite, having seen Bolling, who was waiting in line to run, lose the nomination to someone who jumped in front.

“If there’s one thing people don’t like, it’s a Benedict Arnold,” said Chris LaCivita, Cuccinelli’s lead adviser. “You’re either a sore loser or a sellout. Boyd Marcus happens to be both.”

Cuccinelli can spin all he wants.  The bottom line is that he's a detestable individual who is unfit to be governor.  Marcus sees this and it drives Cuccinelli crazy (or at least crazier).

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Changing Virginia Demographics: An Ill Omen for the GOP

As noted in many posts on this blog, the Republican Party, both at the national level and in Virginia, has increasingly focused its efforts on older white voters and white supremacists and far right Christian elements.  The unfortunate thing for the GOP is that these groups as a share of the over all population are declining.  Meanwhile, the GOP policies that excite the GOP base repel the population groups that are increasing as a share of the overall population.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at how this demographic change could spell disaster for the Virginia GOP this November - a potential made all the greater by the extremism of the GOP statewide ticket.  Here are article highlights:

If things keep going the way they have in Virginia for the past 36 years, Ken Cuccinelli will win the governor's race. As The New York Times pointed out Thursday, the party that occupies the White House consistently loses the governor's mansion in Virginia. In 2013, however, the state's changing demographics are giving Democratic contender Terry McAuliffe an advantage. He knows this, and he's running on it.

Right now, McAuliffe is leading Cuccinelli 48 percent to 42 percent, according to a Quinnipac poll released Wednesday. The poll also showed that more Democratic voters intend to vote in this midterm election than usual — likely Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 39 percent to 32 percent. The Washington Post notes that's the same split that caused the state to swing for Obama in 2012. 

The Times reports that there's been a decrease in white voters in Virginia since 2009 — from 78 percent to 75 percent. Suburban, minority voters make up more of the electorate than ever before. And the makeup of white voters is also changing — more of them are young, recent college grads, who are more likely to vote for a Democrat because of the party's stance social issues.

Republicans are naturally worried about these shifting demographics, and Democrats are trying to ride the wave.

In Virginia, McAuliffe has especially reached out to Latino voters. At a July campaign stop in Woodbridge, he met with Todos Supermarket owner Carlos Castro, and called him an example of the "American Dream":

We can’t grow our economy unless we ensure that Virginia is an open and welcoming state to everyone. I’d love to see thousands of more Carloses by the end of my term as governor. We need to help the Carloses of the future grow and diversify this economy.

McAuliffe has vowed to enact a state-level DREAM Act. He also also campaigned to Asian-American groups, and he hasn't been shy about calling out his opponent's often less-tolerant party. McAuliffe told Politico earlier in August:

This is probably the starkest difference you’ve had between two candidates running for governor. My opponent is on a social-ideological agenda. In my bones, you cannot grow an economy and diversify it when you have these hate-filled statements — as it relates to women’s  health centers, gay Virginians, the issues on immigration . . . I want to stop all that.

So Cuccinelli will keep pretending demographics are no big deal, and McAuliffe will continue to call for more "Carloses." And with the white vote shrinking nationwide, what happens in Virginia in 2013 could be a peek at what's to come nationally in 2016.

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Why the GOP May Lose Virginia’s Statehouse

The more one knows about GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and his equally extreme running mates - E.W Jackson, in my opinion needs to be in a mental ward - the more one should be disturbed by the fact that this trio of crazies (pictured above) were even nominated.  This year's GOP statewide ticket speaks volumes about just how far the Republican Party has fallen.  Ignorance, bigotry and frightening religious extremism and a contempt for the U. S. Constitution are deemed virtues in today's GOP.  And with luck, Virginians will defeat these extremists in November and save Virginia from retreating into a lapse back to the 1950's or earlier.  An story in The Daily Beast looks at why the GOP may crash and burn in November.  Here are highlights:

The conventional wisdom on the Virginia gubernatorial race can be summed up in a single sentence: Terry McAuliffe is too weak to beat anyone other than Ken Cuccinelli, who likewise is too weak to beat anyone other than Terry McAuliffe. This, however, is a little unfair to McAuliffe.

Tea Party-favorite Cuccinelli is a rigid extremist, whose slavish devotion to his ideology has made him vulnerable in a state that prides itself on political independence. Which is why, if the latest poll from Quinnipiac University is any indication, the conventional wisdom is wrong—McAuliffe is stronger than expected, and Cuccinelli is much weaker than anyone imagined.

According to Quinnipiac, McAuliffe leads Cuccinelli by six points among likely voters, 48 percent to 42 percent. This is big news. So far, Quinnipiac is the only pollster to look beyond registered voters, where Democrats have an edge. The likely voter pool, by contrast, is smaller, whiter, and in the case of Virginia gubernatorial elections, much older. If past elections are any guide, a likely voter poll should have given Cuccinelli a small advantage over his opponent. For now, however, he’s at a significant disadvantage.

There’s more. At the same time “the Macker” is winning almost every Democrat (only one percent opposed), Cuccinelli is losing six percent of Republicans.  And indeed, recent news suggests that the state’s GOP establishment—or at least, a portion of it—has turned against the attorney general, repelled by his extremism and rigidity.
Cuccinelli has one other problem, and that’s his connection to the “gifts” scandal that has engulfed Gov. Bob McDonnell with questions, controversy, and a federal investigation. 

As always, it’s still early, and there are a lot of things that can change. Right now, however, the conventional wisdom doesn’t look so wise. The Virginia gubernatorial race isn’t one weak candidate against another, it’s one weak candidate against a disaster of an opponent, representing a Virginia Republican Party on the verge of collapse.

Turn out is critical and it is crucial that every sane Virginian, every woman who wants control over her own body, ever minority voter who fears disenfranchisement, and every gay who doesn't want to be re-criminalized needs to get out and vote against the GOP ticket in November.  We cannot sit back and assume that Cuccinelli, et al will lose.

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Longtime GOP Operative and Consultant Endorses McAuliffe

While far too many of my former Republican compatriots continue to guzzle down Christofascists Kool-Aid, some are waking up to the reality that the 2013 GOP statewide slate is not only frightening but also poisonous for Virginia's future.  Now, Boyd Marcus, campaign consultant to Jim Gilmore, George Allen, and other true remotely sane conservative Republicans, has come out and endorsed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.   Even more stunning, he is now advising the McAuliffe campaign.  Not surprisingly, the GOP Kool-Aid drinkers are livid with Marcus.  Here are highlights from the Miami Herald:

Boyd Marcus, a veteran Republican political consultant whose client list has included U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and former Gov. Jim Gilmore, is endorsing Democrat Terry R. McAuliffe and advising his campaign against GOP nominee Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia's neck-and-neck race for governor..

The announcement by McAuliffe's campaign, confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday in a phone interview with Marcus, rocked Virginia politics and exposed the clearest sign to date of bad blood within the GOP between its establishment and the tea party conservatives who comprise Cuccinelli's ardent army and control the state Republican Party machinery.

Marcus, who most recently guided the aborted gubernatorial campaign of Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, became a paid adviser to McAuliffe knowing it would sever many longtime GOP ties for him. But he felt it necessary.

"I was looking at the candidates, and I saw Terry McAuliffe as the guy who will work with everybody to get things done," Marcus told the AP in a telephone interview.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/20/3574358/veteran-gop-strategist-endorses.html#.UhOGunHHvUk.twitter#storylink=cpy

In a statement announcing the endorsement, McAuliffe's campaign quotes Marcus as saying, "I've never before supported any Democrat, but this election Terry is the clear choice for mainstream conservatives."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/20/3574358/veteran-gop-strategist-endorses.html#.UhOGunHHvUk.twitter#storylink=cpy

Democrats were giddy at Marcus' defection. A Democratic National Committee noted the news in a blast email, gloating that it was "just the latest example of dysfunction and infighting within the GOP, and the Civil War that is pulling the party apart."

Marcus's defection struck even the GOP's establishment figures as a breathtaking apostasy, an action tantamount to Marcus forever forsaking the party.

"How can you ever go back?" former Lt. Gov. John H. Hager, a moderate Republican, said in a telephone interview. "Basically, it's Boyd's move to hang it up. Maybe this is his ultimate move."

Virginia GOP Chairman Pat Mullins was furious over what he viewed as a betrayal.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/20/3574358/veteran-gop-strategist-endorses.html#.UhOGunHHvUk.twitter#storylink=cpy

Marcus was the architect behind the 1997 campaign in which Gilmore harnessed public hatred for the personal property tax Virginia localities assess on privately owned cars and pickup trucks, allowing the Republican to win in a rout behind the slogan "No Car Tax!"

Marcus served as the governor's chief of staff during Gilmore's term from 1998 to 2001. He earned the nickname "the Prince of Darkness" among political adversaries — and even a few allies — who grudgingly acknowledged his ability to almost invisibly achieve political or policy objectives. 

I love it!!  Would that some of my former compatriots would wake up to reality and flee the Cuccinelli-Jackson-Obenshain triumvirate.  Yes, Karen, I am talking about you among others.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/20/3574358/veteran-gop-strategist-endorses.html#.UhOGunHHvUk.twitter#storylink=cpy

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Ken Cuccinelli's False Attacks on Terry McAuliffe

Cuccinelli = Dishonest Liar

In the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial contest, there is lots of real evidence of Ken Cuccinelli's ethical failures and influence peddling: $18,000 in gifts from Jonnie R. Williams, Sr., stock dealings in Star Scientific, $100,000 from the parent of an energy company that received improper legal assistance from the attorney general's office in a lawsuit with Virginia landowners and tax payers, etc.  And then there are all of Cuccinelli's frivolous lawsuits that have gone down in flames squandering Virginia taxpayer resources in the process.  Oh, and then there's the significant growth of the AG's office under Mr. Small Government Cuccinelli.  What does one do if you are Cuccinelli?  Attack his opponent with innuendo and claim that there's fire of scandal where there isn't any.  If Cuccinelli's lips are moving, it is safet to assume he's lying. A column in the Washington Post looks at Cuccinelli's dishonest attacks on McAuliffe.  Here are excerpts:

My first concern is the furor over Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe’s misadventure with GreenTech Automotive, which makes small electric cars in Northern Mississippi after skipping past Virginia during its search for a plant site.

The campaign of Republican contender Kenneth Cuccinelli is making  a lot of hay over some rather vague accusations’ involving McAuliffe, and that seems to be as much as they have on Terry. The New York Times and The Post have weighed in with stories about the car company and a related financial firm that involves Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother.

Basically, McAuliffe got into business with a man named Charles Wang to build little battery-powered cars. Part of the strategy involved getting visas for some business people from China under a legal program that has been around for about two decades. McAuliffe may have done a bit of informal lobbying to expedite the visa processs, as far as I can tell.

In sum, at least from what we know so far, McAuliffe got involved in a business that didn’t live up to expectations. He should have told voters he’d bailed on the firm sooner than he did.

A little perspective. There are lots of business problems out there. Here in Richmond, the region lost some big companies during the Great Recession, including mass retailer Circuit City, mortgage firm Land America and chip-maker Qimondo. The Post has such financial problems that it is being bought by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Where’s the smoking gun in these cases?

And then, as noted above and in the column, there's Cuccinelli's own record:

The attorney general bought stock in a firm involved in a tax case his office was prosecuted. He did not immediately disclose the holding. He also accepted $18,000 in gifts from the owner of the firm . . .  One of his assistants was criticized by a federal judge for acting as an advocate for two large energy companies in a legal battle over natural gas rights. One of the firms is a major contributor to Cuccinelli’s campaign.

Nothing here is going to send Cuccinelli to jail, but how do McAuliffe’s problems with GreenTech measure up as ethical transgressions when compared to Cuccinelli’s?

The fact is, they don’t, barring more revelations about GreenTech.

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Virginia Businesses Aren’t Buying Cuccinelli

During the gubernatorial debate last weekend between GOP candidate Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the always sexually obsessed Kookinelli who wants to police Virginia bedrooms laughed at McAuliffe's stated concern that social extremism such at that espoused by Cuccinelli would be bad for Virginia economically.   Apparently, many Virginia business leaders, while not thrilled by McAuliffe, see him as a lesser of two evils and are withholding support from Cuccinelli.  A piece in Time looks at the issue.  Here are excerpts:

Bloomberg, citing the Virginia Public Access Project, reports that of [Governor Bob] McDonnell’s top 25 individual donors, only 10 so far have contributed to Cuccinelli.

“I have yet to meet a business leader that says they will support Cuccinelli, which is surprising because Republicans are usually supported by business leaders,” says Gary Shapiro of the Arlington-based Consumer Electronics Association, who supported Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain “loudly and financially” in their respective runs for the presidency. “In my 35 years of Virginia, Attorney General Cuccinelli, if he became governor, would definitely be the most conservative. He makes [Governor Bob] McDonnell look left-wing,” Shapiro continued. “McAuliffe is definitely the lesser of two evils.”

“Most of the Virginia business leaders who I know are moderate Republicans,” says Bill Crutchfield, the founder of his eponymous consumer electronics retailing company based out of Charlottesville. “We believe that Ken Cuccinelli is far to the right of our philosophical comfort zone…Our state’s economic development could be adversely impacted if socially extreme candidates take over our government.” Crutchfield supported the Romney-Ryan ticket and spoke at one of their rallies last year.

Cuccinelli’s social views have made national news, with Jay Leno and Whoopi Goldberg ripping him this week for his stance on anti-sodomy laws. Cuccinelli has also been trying to overturn a federal court ruling that found the law, which outlawed oral and anal sex, unconstitutional.

“There is some concern that Terry McAuliffe is too close to organized labor. He needs to dispel that perception,” said Crutchfield. “Since Terry McAuliffe has never held political office, it is hard to know if he is a moderate or liberal Democrat. However, if Terry McAuliffe can demonstrate that he is a moderate, I suspect that a large number of Virginia’s business leaders will support him.”  Shapiro agreed with Crutchfield.

Both candidates have some baggage, but at least McAuliffe is not batshit crazy and making Virginia a laughing stock on a regular basis.   Moreover, America and the world are changing, yet Kookinelli and the Virginia GOP want to take Virginia back to some early 1950's vision of a time when blacks were segregated, gays were deep in the closet, and women were not expected to be much more than stay at home mothers.   That is not a winning approach in today's world.

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Will The Anti-Gay Platform Even Work in Virginia Anymore?

An article in The Atlantic conjectures that the GOP's anti-gay platform embraced by Ken Cuccinelli and his fellow extremists on the GOP ticket will no longer work in Virginia.  One can only hope that the premise is correct and that it is part of what leads to across the board losses for the whack jobs nominated by the Christofascist/Tea Party controlled GOP state convention earlier this year.  Here are column excerpts:

Ken Cuccinelli's election of strategy of running on his long-standing opposition to homosexuality might have worked in 2009, when Cuccinelli won the attorney general race in Virginia. But the country's shift on gay politics didn't miss the state, putting Cuccinelli at risk of losing key Republican donors and the governor's race.

The timing of his embrace of anti-gay rhetoric couldn't be much worse. Cuccinelli is running in a close race with Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Several polls, including one from Quinnipiac University last week, show McAuliffe with a slight lead. But in another metric, fundraising, McAuliffe is far ahead — thanks, in part, to reticence from past Republican donors to give to Cuccinelli. Bloomberg reports that Cuccinelli's adamant social conservative positions are a key factor in that antipathy. That attitude can be summarized in one quote.

“Mr. Cuccinelli’s very hard stance on some of the social issues is a concern for me,” said Virginia Beach developer Bruce L. Thompson, chief executive officer of Gold Key/PHR Hotels and Resorts, a financial backer of current Republican Governor Bob McDonnell who in May gave McAuliffe $25,000.

Or, perhaps two:

“I’m an employer in Virginia, and Cuccinelli terrifies me,” said Gary Shapiro, the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association in Arlington, which represents 2,000 technology companies.

“To attract the best employees, you don’t want to have the most backward policies in the country,” Shapiro said, referring to Cuccinelli’s stands on issues including abortion and gay rights.

Cuccinelli has raised 40 percent less than McAuliffe to date.  

But that shortfall isn't inspiring him to rethink his campaign focus. As we reported last week, Cuccinelli has put a renewed emphasis on bolstering the state's anti-sodomy law. That position, which seeks to frame a law that bans consensual oral and anal sex between adults as a key tool for combatting child predators, was eviscerated by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell in a widely-shared segment last Wednesday.

[T]hat same Quinnipiac poll which showed McAuliffe in the lead suggested that the trend has now fully reversed, with a majority of Virginians supporting gay marriage.

More alarmingly for Cuccinelli is how that support correlates with support for his opponent. Women support McAuliffe by a margin of 48 percent-to-32 percent, a 16-point spread. Woman are also much more likely to support same-sex marriage, approving of it by a 55 percent-to-39 percent margin. The difference there? Sixteen percentage points.

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Cuccinelli Confirms Anti-Gay Stance; Liberty Counsel: ‘The life of the Average Homosexual is Controlled by Lust’

In the first debate between Terry McAuliffe and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli, Kookinelli again confirmed his anti gay animus and refused to renounce any of his past statements denigrating LGBT Virginians.   Meanwhile, his supporters at Liberty Counsel were providing evidence of the anti-gay animus that was the sole motivation behind the passage of Virginia's gay marriage ban by describing gays as being controlled by lust.   First these highlights from The Hill on the debate sparring on gay rights:

On gay marriage, Cuccinelli was asked by moderator Judy Woodruff about prior comments that homosexuality was against nature.

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven't changed,” he replied.

McAuliffe said such comments would drive businesses away from Virginia and said he would support changing the Virginia Constitution to allow same-sex marriage. Cuccinelli retorted that the suggestion business would suffer was laughable and offensive.

With Virginia dependent on tourism, apparently Kookinelli thinks alienating the $70 billion domestic LGBT tourism market is laughable.
 
As noted above, the folks at Virginia based Liberty Counsel are busy providing proof that anti-gay animus is what moved The Family Foundation and Liberty Counsel to back the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.   LGBTQ Nation provides details:

Crampton and Barber warned that these sorts of attacks on anti-gay Christians will only increase in the months and years ahead because, as Crampton explained, “the life of the average homosexual is not controlled by reason” but a perverted lust and passion that has “overwhelmed them.” And thus, when you couple that “a lack of self-control” with “the taste of blood,” you have a recipe for further bloodletting.

Barber agreed, declaring that gays “define their entire identity based up aberrant sexual behaviors and sexual temptations and acting on those temptations” and so, as Scripture proclaims, they are eventually consumed by this “lust-filled, sex-centric, perversion-centric lifestyle” and ultimately driven by a “dark soul” to commit this sort of violent behavior:

Let's hope statements like that from 2006 are found and presented at trial in the gay marriage case now pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.  They definitely suggest that some other than "protecting the sanctity of marriage" was/is involved.

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Our Ft. Lauderdale Vacation Starts Tomorrow

In the morning the boyfriend and I are headed to Ft. Lauderdale to stay with friends that hosted us back in February (where we are staying is shown in the images above and below).  Posting tomorrow will be limited since we will be in travel mode.  Our two dogs will be sojourning at the boyfriend's father's home while we are away and the Terry McAuliffe staffer that we are hosting through November will be holding down things at the house with the help of a friend here in the neighborhood who will tend the boyfriends numerous potted plants.  Interestingly enough, we are driving to Richmond to catch a direct flight on Jet Blue that was extremely reasonable and which avoids the pitfalls of connections.

While in the Ft. Lauderdale area, we will definitely make use of our reciprocal membership benefits through HYC.

I would ask any readers in the Ft. Lauderdale area to e-mail me if they'd like to get together.  We will be getting together with friend from the area and also seeing Virginia friends who have second homes in the area, but meeting new friends is always something we enjoy.  I am 100% serious in extending this invitation.

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Numerous Republicans Endorse McAuliffe inVirginia Governor Race

While I remain concerned about turnout for the 2013 Virgina elections this coming November - minorities, gays and women need to be made to understand that their votes in November, 2013 are as important, if not more important, than the votes they cast in November, 2012, - the GOP news is that saner Republicans appear to be jumping ship and endorsing Terry McAuliffe for Governor of Virginia.  One can only hope that as Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli's extremism is exposed and his conflicts of interest and ethically challenged behavior becomes more widely known, the exodus from the GOP will continue.  Here are highlights from the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star on the latest GOP endorsements of McAuliffe:

Republican former state Sen. John Chichester says he’d love to back a gubernatorial candidate with “mainstream Republican thinking.”  That, he said, is why he’s supporting Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in this year’s governor’s race.

Chichester and several other Republicans formally endorsed McAuliffe at a morning press conference in Richmond today.

They join other Republicans who are outspoken about their belief that Cuccinelli is too far to the right, and feel they’re becoming the GOP’s moderates as the party becomes more conservative.

“I’m looking forward to the time our party nominates someone I can support that is in mainstream Republican thinking,” Chichester said.

He was joined at the press conference by Republican former delegates Vince Callahan and Katherine Waddell, and by Judy Ford Wason, who backed Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2009. Former Sen. Russ Potts and former Del. Jim Dillard are also part of the “Virginians for McAuliffe” group.

Chichester said he and McAuliffe had a “heart to heart” talk, and that McAuliffe “gets it.”

“It,” for Chichester, the former Senate Finance chairman, is an understanding that a governor has only four years to govern but those four years include two budget cycles with “horizons that go much beyond those four years.”

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Virginia GOP Losing Grip With New Voters

The need to reform the GOP isn't just a national level problem.  Here in Virginia the 2013 GOP slate of statewide candidates is the most extreme and in my view mentally disturbed in the history of the Commonwealth.  And who put these loons and extremists on the ballot?  The Christofascists led by The Family Foundation, of course.  The challenge for the Democrats will be to educate voters as to just how insane the GOP candidates are in fact.  Most people likely cannot believe that the GOP has sunk so low into extremism that people this extreme could actually be major party nominees.  A piece in Bloomberg.com looks at the growing divergence between younger and educated voters and the spittle flecked religious extremists who now control the Republican Party of Virginia.  Here are some article excerpts:

Loudoun County the wealthiest in the U.S. Technology companies, many with ties to the federal government, and other businesses fueled by the development have stoked an economy attracting higher educated workers and minority populations that have soared since 1990 -- a five-fold increase of Hispanics and seven times the number of Asians. 

Located 40 miles from Washington, D.C, Loudoun County is now considered by White House officials to be one of the best bellwethers for presidential elections. President Barack Obamawon there in 2008, the first Democrat to do so since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and again in 2012, victories that signaled how shifting economic and population trends are refashioning the politics of Virginia and the nation.

“We are seeing a solidly red state turn blue,” said Dustin Cable, a demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service in Charlottesville. “Virginia is really ground zero for a lot of what we see at the national level.” 

[T]he Old Dominion is also seeing a rise in Asian voters and in the number of residents with masters or doctorate degrees.  .  .   .  Democrats have won because of the combination of the demographic changes and the policy positions taken by Republicans on issues such as immigration and abortion rights. 

“It’s not just the change in demographics, it is the changing issue matrix the party has decided to embrace,” said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman who represented counties in northern Virginia. “The social and cultural agenda of the party does not play to these educated people.” 

“One of the challenges the Republican Party faces in Virginia and a lot of other swing states is how do we remain a conservative party but still be able to appeal to these changing demographic patterns,” [Bill] Bolling said.

“I am a Republican. I am very concerned about the direction of the Republican Party but I believe in the Republican Party. But I’m not a happy Republican,” he said.

Bolling said his colleagues have done a poor job appealing to these emerging voters, and instead have retreated into a party where “you are persona non grata unless you agree with them 100 percent of the way, 100 percent of the time. We’ve got to move beyond that.” 

Still, Bolling said, if turnout matches historical averages for a governor’s race, Cuccinelli has a good chance of winning. In 2012, 3.8 million votes were cast in the presidential race, compared to 1.98 million in the last governor’s race, in 2009.  If it approaches the 75 percent level of a presidential year, Bolling said, “McAuliffe would win in a landslide.”

We need a landslide win for McAuliffe and the Democrat ticket.  Nothing less may force moderates to try to retake the party from the Christofascists.  The key is educating blacks, women, gays and other minorities as to just how extreme the GOP ticket is and how much they will work to disenfranchise minority voters, totally control women's bodies and make being gay a living Hell in Virginia.  These GOP candidates are not nice individuals and neither are those who nominated them.

 

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