What to Watch in Virginia Today

The polls are now open in Virginia and hopefully the day will prove to be a catastrophe for the Republican Party of Virginia.  And, if such turns out to be the case, it will be critical that the religious extremists and Neanderthals of the Tea Party not escape responsibility for the lunatics that were nominated by the GOP due to these elements.  Meanwhile, it will be a fretful day for political junkies as efforts are made to try to get a sense for what is happening throughout the day.  One big indicator will be turnout.  If turn out is higher than predicted, it will likely bode ill for the GOP ticket of crazies.  Likewise, how the vote in Southwest Virginia splits will also be telling.  A piece in Politico looks at some of the things to watch for.  Here are excerpts:

Turnout.  If turnout drops substantially below the 40 percent mark – if all the nasty attack ads about legitimately flawed candidates leave a chunk of voters so depressed they decide to stay home or vote for the libertarian – we could be in for a more suspenseful election night than most are expecting.

With that in mind, here are the key things to watch as exit polling and returns come in.

Does McAuliffe have coattails?   Cuccinelli’s weakness at the top of the ticket has heightened GOP fears of a Democratic sweep.

Republican attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain is outperforming his running mates by a few points—trailing slightly but still in the hunt. But strategists agree he will almost certainly get wiped out if Cuccinelli loses by six points or more. Democrats say it’s even possible that they could oust Del. Bob Marshall, the social conservative responsible for many of the legislative controversies that have dogged Cuccinelli in Northern Virginia.

The outer exurbs of Northern Virginia are a good place to see if a tidal wave is in the making. Cuccinelli will get crushed in the inner D.C. suburbs of Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria, but he thinks he can hold his own in the outer suburbs of Loudoun and Prince William County.

Loudoun was long Republican, but it’s become much more competitive. McDonnell won the county, which includes Leesburg, by 22 points in 2009, but Obama carried it by 4.5 percent last year. The Democratic nominee for attorney general, Mark Herring, happens to represent the county in the state legislature.

Also watch Republican-leaning Chesapeake, a suburb of Norfolk on the coast. Obama got exactly 50 percent of the vote there last year after McDonnell won by 20 points. If Cuccinelli loses there, it’s going to be a blow out.

Will black voters show up without Obama on the ballot?  Some African-American leaders have expressed concern that black voters will stay home. If they do, the race will be much closer than the polls suggest.

The McAuliffe campaign has built a huge portion of its field program around mobilizing black voters. Former President Bill Clinton went into an overwhelmingly black section of Richmond to make an explicit pitch for the community to turn out, and Obama was only a little more subtle Sunday.

Is Sarvis a spoiler?  Libertarian Robert Sarvis, who ran for state Senate as a Republican in 2011, has pulled double digits in some polls largely by attacking Cuccinelli over his views on social issues like gay marriage.

A lot of people who tell pollsters they back Sarvis will probably stay home rather than vote for a candidate who has no shot of winning. But Cuccinelli hopes a bulk of them break his way out of a desire to beat McAuliffe.

Internal McAuliffe forecasts show the first 5 percent for Sarvis probably comes evenly from McAuliffe and Cuccinelli, but anything above that threshold comes two-to-one from the Republicans.

How big is the gender gap? McAuliffe is outspending Cuccinelli 10-to-1 on TV in the final days. His ads have suggested the Republican would outlaw common forms of birth control, toughen the requirements to get divorced and make it nearly impossible to get an abortion. Cuccinelli says these claims are ridiculous, but he chose not to spend what precious resources he had on defense.

An unmarried woman shopping recently at Trader Joe’s in Centreville, part of Cuccinelli’s old state Senate district, revealed the extent of his problems. Stevie McCauley, a high school guidance counselor, voted for John McCain and Mitt Romney, but she supports McAuliffe. “It’s choice, it’s gay rights, it’s birth control,” she said. “In general, I try to stay away from people who tell me what to do.” Other women interviewed outside the store said they don’t normally vote in off-year elections, but they will this year to vote against Cuccinelli.

Will McAuliffe make inroads in Southwest Virginia?  Cuccinelli will win this conservative swath of the state, but will he get anywhere close to the 69 percent of the vote that McDonnell received four years ago?  Democrats have invested heavily on television to try to sap Cuccinelli’s strength.

It will be a long day of wondering and waiting for result.

Will Cosol Energy Be Cuccinelli's Undoing?

Consol Energy money time line - click Image to enlarge

With Election Day just 2 days away here in Virginia, more attention than usual is focused on Southwest Virginia, an area of the state where Republican candidates typically dominate.  There is little belief that Democrat Terry McAuliffe will beat the extreme Ken Cuccinelli in the region.  But there is much speculation as to whether or not Cuccinelli will be able to achieve the victory margin to counterbalance the populous urban areas of Virginia where McAuliffe will likely win the day.  If Cuccinelli doesn't win in Southwest Virginia by the margin he needs, the loss may well be a self-inflicted one thanks to Cuccinelli's greed and willingness to accept bribes large contributions from the energy industry in exchange for legal favors.  Here are highlights from the Bristol News:

Southwest Virginia could be a deciding factor in who wins the governor’s seat in Tuesday’s election.

The region was supposed to be a safe base for gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Here, he should have been able to count on solid Republican support while the heavily populated regions around Northern Virginia and Tidewater cranked out the massive toss-up votes, likely to fall into the hands of Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

But the natural-gas royalties controversy, sparked by a senior assistant attorney general’s help to energy companies being sued by regional landowners, threw that plan into a tailspin.

As a result, state political experts are now echoing a similar refrain about the region becoming a must-win for Cuccinelli.

“If he can’t hold off Terry McAuliffe in Southwest Virginia, then it’s over,” said Geoffrey Skelley, of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Billionaire environmentalist and McAuliffe backer Tom Steyer seized on the royalties controversy when it broke months ago and hasn’t let go. “I do think this is an incredibly powerful story and one that could change opinions about [Cuccinelli’s] reputation,” he said.

His political action committee, the San Francisco-based NextGen Climate Action, has spent slightly more than $2.4 million on television spots hammering the Republican candidate as a sell-out to out-of-state companies, according to non-partisan political spending tracker Virginia Public Access Project.

Voters across the state have seen the spots a lot. Ads featuring pictures of the attorney general, gas drilling pumps and newspaper clippings have splashed across TVs in Southwest Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and in the Tidewater region.

The ads seem to have resonated with some regional voters, wrote Jesse T. Richman, political science associate professor at Old Dominion University.

Fanning the flames even higher is the more than $140,000 in cash dropped into Cuccinelli’s campaign coffers since 2010 by Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy, which owns one of the energy companies being sued.

Cuccinelli needs more than just a win in Southwest Virginia, said Harry Wilson, professor and political analyst at Roanoke College. He needs a resounding victory.  “If Cuccinelli doesn’t win Southwest Virginia then this will be a landslide of epic proportions,” Wilson said.

Simply put, the Republican candidate will count on the rural area as a base of stability while he slugs it out for votes in the state’s more densely populated urban areas. And he has to do it knowing the natural-gas royalties controversy might have muddied the waters just enough to pull that base out from under him.

Cuccinelli in Bristol to Shore Up Support in Southwest Virginia

Consol Energy campaign contribution timeline - Click to enlarge

Certainly over the last 25 years, Southwest Virginia has always been reliably Republican and any GOP candidate could plan on overwhelming voter support absent being "found in bed with a boy or a dead girl" as some have said.  Yet, less than a week before election day, Ken Cuccinelli was in Bristol, Virginia campaigning to shore up support in Southwest Virginia.  Equally, surprising, he only had 30 people turn out.  Apparently, Cuccinelli's acceptance of campaign bribes contributions from Consol Energy is continuing to haunt him. One can only hope that this all demonstrates that Cuccinelli is in real trouble.  Here are details from Tricities.Com:

BRISTOL , Va. – With just a few days left until Tuesday’s election, Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli stopped by downtown Bristol early Thursday to shore up his support base in Southwest Virginia.

Cuccinelli spoke inside the dusty construction site of the Birthplace of Country Music museum, a work in progress that is expected to open next year. And his audience was a friendly crowd of about 30 who responded to his message with claps, hoots and the occasional “amen!”

“The single biggest decision in Virginia that the next governor will make on our budget will be to either support or oppose expanding Obamacare in Virginia with the Medicaid expansion,” he said. “We will not hug Obamacare. We will keep our distance as best we can.”

The attorney general has trekked into Southwest Virginia several times in the last month, with a meet-and-greet lunch held in an Abingdon restaurant and a stump speech from the steps of the Washington County courthouse.

On Thursday, Cuccinelli’s planned path from Bristol was to wind northward to Tazewell, on to Wytheville and then to Galax. A return trip to Bristol is also set for Sunday.

The many stops in a region that traditionally votes Republican could be an attempt to regain any votes lost as a result of a scandal in which a senior assistant attorney general provided legal advice to energy company lawyers embroiled in a federal lawsuit with regional landowners seeking millions in natural gas royalties. The controversy intensified because CONSOL Energy, the parent company of one of the energy companies involved, has dropped $111,044 into Cuccinelli’s campaign since 2012.

McAuliffe’s campaign pointed to the campaign contribution Thursday when offered an opportunity to comment about Cuccinelli’s local stop.

“Ken Cuccinelli is the last one who should be talking about the needs of Southwest Virginia after he took more than $100,000 from the out-of-state energy company his office was inappropriately aiding in its fight against Southwest Virginia landowners,” McAuliffe campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin wrote.

I continue to hope that Cuccinelli's extremism, his greed and his sense of entitlement will be his undoing. 

Cuccinelli Is Screwing Virginia Taxpayers

I have long argued that GOP gubernatorial candidate has always wanted Virginia taxpayers to be forced to help underwrite his campaign, hence his refusal to resign as attorney general as has it been the tradition in Virginia for decades.   Cuccinelli has wanted to draw a full time salary while working part time at best.  A new analysis of his schedule confirms that he has been campaigning - 74% of the time - more than he has been working - a mere 26% of the time.  The Virginian Pilot has details.  Here are highlights:

That same-day juxtaposition - attorney general in the morning, candidate in the afternoon - shows seesawing commitments that lately have tipped the balance of Cuccinelli's campaign.

A Virginian-Pilot analysis of Cuccinelli's office and campaign schedules for July, August and part of September suggests he has spent more time on the trail than behind his desk while earning a $150,000 annual state salary, plus health benefits for his nine-member family.

According to the schedules, he was in his office seven of 22 work days in July, four of 22 days in August, and just three of nine the first two weeks of September. That equates to roughly 26 percent of the total work days over that period.

Remaining attorney general while seeking higher office has given Cuccinelli a platform, but also been a nagging campaign issue, as evidenced by his physical absences.

The campaign also has been hampered by the gift scandal orbiting Cuccinelli and his office, as well as its role in a legal dispute between Southwest Virginia landowners and energy companies over natural gas payments. Those episodes allowed critics to cry conflict, charges Cuccinelli could have more easily avoided if he'd left office, and undercut an argument that McAuliffe is unscrupulous.

His decision proved a boon for Virginia Democrats already loaded to hit Cuccinelli for his views on gay rights, abortion and climate change, all demonstrated during his high-profile tenure as attorney general. They have hounded him since January to resign - a state tradition followed by the six prior attorneys general who ran for governor - and they gained ammunition when he stayed.

Cuccinelli is a self-centered extremist (a trait he shares with his supporters at The Family Foundation) and it sounds like he needs to return a huge chunk of his pay check back to Virginia tax payers.

How Ken Cuccinelli Blew His Early Advantage

I will not feel comfortable until the votes are counted on the evening of November 5, 2013, and it is confirmed for certain that GOP lunatic candidate Ken Cuccinelli has gone down to defeat.  Yet the post mortems have already begun and a remarkable piece in the Washington Post authored by political polar opposites slams both Cuccinelli and his campaign for bungling and unbelievable tone deafness when it comes to reading the public mindset.  Much of the piece would blame Cuccinelli's campaign staff, but in my view, the real problems ultimately is Cuccinelli himself who (i) is a "true believer" fanatic who is so certain of his own views that he cares nothing about what others - including a majority of voters - may think and (ii) has created many easily avoidable disasters for himself.  Long ago he should have gotten out and mingled with those outside the echo chamber of The Family Foundation and far right organizations that much of the larger public perceive as scary and/or insane.  That, of course, would have been inconsistent with his zealot/fanatic/extremist mindset. Cuccinelli will likely never grasp that the views of The Family Foundation are not representative of most Virginians.  Here are column excerpts:

Last month, we wrote that Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign to become Virginia’s next governor needed to raise its game or face certain defeat. Has it done so? Unequivocally, no.  Cuccinelli’s strategists and consultants have doggedly followed a baffling strategy.

Even the best campaigns can lose. But an inept campaign guarantees a loss for an underdog, and Cuccinelli (R) has been the underdog since July. The attorney general’s defenders will undoubtedly refute our analysis, claiming instead that bad luck and strong headwinds have hobbled the GOP effort in Virginia. In our view, his problems went much deeper.

Simply put, Cuccinelli’s advisers never displayed an ability to win. They badly underestimated the seasoned team of his opponent, Terry McAuliffe (D), which was aided by nearly twice as much campaign cash.

[T]he real damage from “giftgate” had nothing to do with luck. It resulted from Cuccinelli’s inexplicable refusal to repay the $18,000, even after McDonnell had reimbursed Williams. This gave McAuliffe a political gift: an issue to use in a late-summer television ad barrage to undercut Cuccinelli’s previously “clean” image. When Cuccinelli’s campaign finally realized its huge, unforced error, it reversed course and Cuccinelli donated the value of the gifts to charity. But the damage was done.

Cuccinelli’s defenders also bemoan the bad timing of the federal shutdown and debt default, which soured voters on Republicans generally. It’s true that was a tough break. But by then, his campaign was already lagging in the polls.

Moreover, Cuccinelli had been angling to harness tea party enthusiasm since his first-in-the-nation legal challenge to Obamacare in 2010. He had to know — or should have known — the risks of associating himself with the bloc’s often-rigid views. This month, he and shutdown leader Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the tea party’s hero of the moment, were the featured speakers at the conservative Family Foundation’s annual gala in Richmond.
Bad luck also didn’t create a pattern of pitting gubernatorial candidate Cuccinelli against Attorney General Cuccinelli on issues such as McDonnell’s transportation plan, unpopular tolls in the Tidewater region and landowner rights in Southwest Virginia.

No, Cuccinelli’s problems aren’t about luck. They’re about a candidate and a campaign team being unable to play this level.

Consider: Early on, Cuccinelli refused to resign as attorney general when he mounted his run for governor, as predecessors of both parties have done. We agree that this unique Virginia tradition is outdated. But given that several developing cases were fated to become front-page news during the election, his campaign advisers should have seized on the Virginia tradition as a blessing. They didn’t see it.

Cuccinelli, the likely easy winner in the already declared GOP gubernatorial primary, decided nonetheless to get the rules changed. He helped force a nominating convention that was stacked against rival Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling. The perceived double-cross alienated key Republicans.

As McAuliffe’s summer ad campaign methodically wrecked Cuccinelli’s image, the Republican’s consultants failed to offer what professionals call an “alternative positive narrative.”

Cuccinelli’s consultants agreed with Virginia political observer Larry Sabato, who said the GOP nominee was a sure winner once Republicans launched their anti-McAuliffe campaign. We debunked such foolishness early on. The Cuccinelli campaign long promised an October surprise. Right.

The verdict: “Unable,” aided and abetted by “unlucky,” leads to “unelectable.”

The authors of this scathing piece:  Norman Leahy, an editor of the conservative Web site BearingDrift.com and producer of the political radio show “The Score,” and Paul Goldman, a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia.  Typically, these men do not agree on anything.  

Cuccinelli: No Conflict for Him to Preside Over Election in Which He Is a Candidate

Sadly, we have already seen examples of Ken Cuccinelli's failure to avoid blatant conflict of interest while he has occupied the office of Virginia Attorney General: bribes gifts from Jonnie R. Williams, CEO of Star Scientific and bribes campaign contributions from Consol Energy which just happened to receive improper legal assistance from Cuccinelli's office, etc.  But now, Cuccinelli's batshitery/arrogance has reached unbelievable levels.  When requested to recuse himself/his office from presiding over legal disputes and issues arising from the 2013 gubernatorial contest in which Cuccinelli is a candidate, Cuccinelli has formally stated that "there is no conflict of interest."  In what universe?   What freaking planet is this man from?   The Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the insanity.  Here are excerpts:

This summer, state Sen. John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, asked Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli whether it is a conflict of interest for Cuccinelli and his office to preside over an election in which he is a candidate.  He wanted to know whether that conflict required Cuccinelli to recuse his office from prosecuting any violations of election law.

On Friday, Edwards received his answer -- no.

"It is my opinion that there is no inherent conflict of interest presented, and thus, no per se requirement that the Office of the Attorney General recuse from investigating and prosecuting alleged violations of election law, when the Attorney General is a candidate for public office in the same election that is under investigation,"

"...There is no legal or ethical requirement that a sitting Attorney General who is on the ballot for an election disqualify himself or his Office from performing all of the Office's statutory responsiblities."
Cuccinelli wrote in a five-page legal opinion, posted to the Attorney General's website today.

"It is further my opinion that any potential recusal of that office must be determined on a case-by-case basis."

Edwards' request was an extension of a position maintained by Democrats in the campaign -- that by remaining in office while running for governor, Cuccinelli compromised not only his ability to serve but invited conflicts between his official responsibilities and his political interests.

The previous six attorneys general who ran for governor of Virginia all resigned their office before their terms expired to seek the Executive Mansion. Cuccinelli has said he would stay in office to fulfill his promise to voters to serve his full term.

Given Cuccinelli's past corruption and disregard for conflicts of interest, I for one do not feel the least bit comfortable knowing that Cuccinelli will likely try to manipulate the election results if the polls  bear out and he goes down in flames.  Cuccinelli is unfit for any elected office!
   

Jennifer Rubin: Cuccinelli’s Got Problems

Meanwhile, the debate continues as to whether or not the drastic drop in the public view of the Republican brand is part of the reason that GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli appears to be tanking in the polls.  Personally, I suspect that most of Cuccinelli's problems trace right back to Cuccinelli himself: his corruption - think money from Star Scientific and Consol Energy - and his scary religious extremism and extreme positions on social issues, including his anti-gay and anti-women jihads.  Jennifer Rubin is a conservative columnist who I generally dislike, but of late she seems to have been zeroing in on the systemic problem of today's GOP and the problems that Cuccinelli has created for himself through his slavish obedience to hate merchants at The Family Foundation and knuckle dragging climate change deniers.  Rubin has let loose on Cuccinelli in a blog post.  Here are excerpts:

Last night I received a recorded phone message from a group called the Tea Party Patriot Fund. In the guise of a poll, the ad for Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli II asked if I supported the giant tax hike  by the “current governor” (alluding to the sales tax hike to pay for transportation) and whether I favored Medicaid expansion. The ad is noteworthy in several respects.

It was, like nearly all of Cuccinelli’s campaign (and this was a third-party ad, which cannot be coordinated with the candidate), entirely negative. The message is that Democrat Terry McAuliffe will raise taxes and expand Medicaid. Unfortunately for Cuccinelli, he’s managed to push down McAuliffe’s numbers but not raise his own, leaving McAuliffe the least-horrible choice for many voters.

In addition, this group doesn’t think that the transportation bill is popular. In fact, polling says it is, and, moreover, Cuccinelli hasn’t run on repealing it. (Had he done so, perhaps those fiscal conservatives wouldn’t be considering Sarvis). It’s part of the confusion about Cuccinelli — will he try to make the law work or seek to scuttle it?

And finally, telephone ad arguments against McAuliffe are weak. The House of Delegates is overwhelmingly Republican and the state Senate is evenly divided, neither of which is likely to change much in the November election. What are the chances the legislature will vote to raise taxes or to expand Medicaid? Not large. . . . .

One thing that would not have helped[Cuccinelli]  — although hard-line conservatives are brushing up this excuse — would have been to run harder on the social issues. He is already losing big in areas (Northern Virginia) and with groups (e.g. younger voters, women) who think he’s too extreme on social issues. Unlike Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who didn’t run on social issues and was able to win Northern Virginia and the women’s vote, Cuccinelli has been unable to escape being tagged as an extremist on these issues. On TV in Northern Virginia, you get one anti-Cuccinelli ad after another, most emphasizing his stance on contraception, abortion, etc.

Sometimes the voters do stumble upon a truthful, general proposition, even if they don’t have all the particulars exactly right. Cuccinelli is a very aggressive, confrontational politician who deeply believes in his positions on social issues, which are generally to the right of most voters in the most-populous areas of the state. That’s a fundamental problem with his candidacy.
Some say he’s “old Virginia” (akin to rock-ribbed conservatives like former Gov. George Allen, who held office 20 years ago) in a “new Virginia” (more diverse, tolerant, moderate, more residents not born in-state). If he does lose (which seems likely), that will be as good an explanation as any.

I find it ironic that some in the GOP are trying to say Cuccinelli is another George Allen.  George Allen - who was a law school classmate of mine who I spent an enjoyable evening with at our 20th alumni reunion - had his issues.  But he was never, ever has been the insane extremist that defines Cuccinelli.  Cuccinelli owes his gubernatorial nomination to The Family Foundation - an extreme far right Christian organization that seeks a theocracy and forced conformity with Christofascists beliefs - and Cuccinelli is one of these true believers.  More and more Virginians seem to be figuring this out and find the prospect of a Governor Cuccinelli to be nothing less than frightening.

Consol Energy Scandal Continues to Plague Cuccinelli

I have written a number of times about the improper legal assistance given to energy companies by Ken Cuccinelli's office against Virginia landowners fighting to receive gas royalty payments.  The Virginia Inspector General's office recently found the legal assistance to have been improper, much of it being given long after the Attorney General's office had any legitimate continuing involvement in the litigation.  Cuccinelli has claimed that he knew nothing about the improper actions of his Assistant Attorney General, Sharon Pidgeon.  As noted before, I find Cuccinelli's claimed ignorance unbelievable.  Especially since one of the energy company's parent entities had given $111,000 to Cuccinelli's campaign.  As the Washington Post reports, many in Southwest Virginia seem to likewise believe that Cuccinelli is lying.  Here are article highlights:

WISE, Va. — Amid the struggling businesses and flattened mountaintops strip-mined decades ago, antipathy toward Democrats and what’s known in this region as their “war on coal” is stronger than just about anywhere else in the country.

That has translated naturally into broad opposition to Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor this year. But across the coal fields of far-southwest Virginia, something unusual is also happening: Voters don’t like the Republican candidate, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, much better.

Cuccinelli’s struggles seem to stem largely from a complex legal case that pits big coal companies against local property owners over the extraction of gas from Virginia land. A lawyer in Cuccinelli’s office intervened on behalf of the companies, and McAuliffe has seized on that to cast the Republican as something other than the defender-of-the-little-guy he has claimed to be throughout this year’s contentious campaign.

Resulting polls, which show McAuliffe and Cuccinelli each capturing well under 50 percent of likely voters’ support in southwest Virginia, reveal a deep vein of economic pain running through a region that presents a study in contrast to the relative prosperity and employment levels of Northern Virginia.

But these voters’ easy suspicions also reveal a vulnerability for Republicans, who depend mightily on running up big winning margins among rural voters in a state where the more populous urban and suburban regions have been trending Democratic in most recent elections. If a Republican doesn’t win by a lot in rural Virginia, there are few other paths to victory.

“Whether I vote for an independent person or I vote for Terry McAuliffe, I know one thing: I am not voting for Ken Cuccinelli, because I can’t trust him,” [Aimee] Compton [of Lebannon] said.

That kind of sentiment has become surprisingly common this election year in a region that has stayed stubbornly red even as the rest of Virginia has tinged purple. 

In a Washington Post/Abt-SRBI poll conducted in mid-September, the Republican took 33 percent of registered voters in southwest Virginia, while McAuliffe drew 31 percent.

“I don’t think the man ought to get elected by somebody that’s paying him. To me, that’s not good politics,” said Eddie Fletcher, a disabled former construction and coal worker from Rowe who is particularly bothered by Consol’s donations to Cuccinelli.

I hope the voters of Southwest Virginia continue to see Cuccinelli for what I see him to be: a corrupt, lying extremist who would be bad for Virginia if elected.  

Cuccinelli's Assistant Improperly Aided Energy Companies

The Virginia Inspector General's report is out and as no surprise, at least to me with an energy company background from my role as in-house counsel to an oil and gas company, report finds that Ken Cuccinelli's Assistant Attorney General, Sharon Pidgeon, acted improperly when she provided legal advice and trial strategy to energy companies embroiled in litigation with Virginia landowners seeking to secure gas royalty payments due to them.  Pidgeon's and Cuccinelli's original excuse was that Pidgeon was defending the constitutionality of Virginia's force pooling statute.  However, her role and assistance continued long after that aspect of the litigation ended.  As noted before, I find it inconceivable that Pidgeon acted alone and without the knowledge of Cuccinelli who just happened to have received $111,000 in campaign contribution from the parent company of one of the energy company litigants.   In my opinopn, both Pidgeon and Cuccinelli are lying.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

Virginia’s inspector general has found that a deputy in the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II improperly collaborated with energy companies in a legal dispute over natural gas royalties in southwest Virginia, according to a report released Tuesday.

Inspector General Michael F.A. Morehart said that Sharon Pigeon, a senior assistant attorney general, “inappropriately” used state resources to assist the energy companies on legal strategy in a battle between landowners and coal companies over the extraction of natural gas from coal beds.

The long-running and complicated dispute, in which property owners have accused two out-of-state coal companies of withholding millions in gas royalties owed to them, has become a bitter issue in the Virginia governor’s race between Cuccinelli (R) and Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

McAuliffe’s campaign has pummeled Cuccinelli for his office’s intervention on behalf of the energy companies while highlighting the campaign contributions he has received from the industry. Cuccinelli has maintained that he has done nothing wrong and took steps to correct the situation after his deputy’s actions came to light.

Pigeon told the inspector general that she had intervened to defend a state law that dictates how disputes are to be settled between landowners and energy companies over natural gas extraction from coal beds, Morehart’s letter says.

But after reviewing dozens of e-mails, the inspector general found that Pigeon assisted energy companies directly, in some cases improperly, and continued to do so after a federal court had upheld the law in question, in September 2011. Morehart found that Pigeon’s assistance inappropriately extended to strategy that could benefit the companies in potential state litigation outside the federal court, the letter says.

The legal dispute — which involves perhaps hundreds of landowners and about $28 million in disputed royalties — pits property owners against two of Virginia’s largest producers of natural gas pumped from coal seams, known as coal-bed methane.

The dispute has led to accusations that Cuccinelli, who has stressed his advocacy for the plight of coal workers, has sided with energy companies at the expense of southwest Virginians. And it has given McAuliffe an opening to attract support in a part of the state that has voted heavily Republican in recent years, in part because of the Obama administration’s environmental policies.
“The Virginia Inspector General confirmed today what Virginians have found troubling for months — that Ken Cuccinelli’s office had stepped over the line and improperly used taxpayer funds to advise out-of-state energy companies trying to avoid paying Southwest Virginia landowners mining royalties that are rightfully theirs,” McAuliffe spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a written statement. Schwerin called on Cuccinelli to return campaign contributions from one of the energy companies.

The inspector general opened the investigation after news reports that a U.S. magistrate had expressed shock that Pigeon was assisting the energy companies. State Sen. Phillip P. Puckett (D-Russell) also called for an independent examination. Puckett said at the time that he was troubled because Consol Energy has contributed more than $111,000 to Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign.

Cuccinelli has consistently demonstrated that he believes that he is above the law and that money from donors looking for political and legal favors is the norm with him. 

Ken Cuccinelli's Office Knew of Staffer's Improper Aid to Energy Companies

Ken Cuccinelli has tried to dodge the simmer scandal that is harming him greatly with voters in Southwest Virginia by claiming that his office did not know about Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pidgeon's aid to affiliates of Consol Energy, one of Cuccinelli's largest campaign donors.  As with pretty much everything that comes out of Cuccinelli's mouth, the claims are untrue.  As the Bristol Herald Courier is reporting, Pidgeon continued advising the energy companies against Virginia landowners for months after Cuccinelli's office learned of the ongoing communications.  In short, Cuccinelli has lied yet again.  Just as he has lied about his extreme agenda while in the Virginia Senate and then as Attorney General.  As noted previously, from my experience with the AG's office, it is utterly inconceivable that Pidgeon followed this course of action without the knowledge, much less the direction of her superiors, including Cuccinelli himself.  Here are highlights from the Herald Courier coverage:

A state Attorney General’s Office staffer continued to advise energy companies how to fight landowners suing over natural gas royalties for months after the state’s top law office learned of the communications, a Bristol Herald Courier review of the emails shows.

Whether the communications continued with AG Ken Cuccinelli’s knowledge remains a mystery because his office refuses to say when he personally learned of the emails or when he officially shut down the staffer’s contact with the corporate attorneys.

Despite being in the spotlight, AG staffer Sharon Pigeon went on to suggest how a corporate lawyer might pull the rug out from under one of the landowner plaintiffs.

“How many hats can he (the plaintiff) wear in all this?” she complained in one of two emails sent after her correspondence became the grist of legal debate. “Apparently, he wants the benefits of the royalty being paid, but wants to undermine the system enabling that payment.”

Mention of 52 emails swapped between Pigeon and lawyers for energy companies EQT Production and CNX Gas appeared in court documents in mid-2012. Some of the actual emails — sent from 2010 through 2012 — were publicly filed later that year as part of the court record.

At the time, lawyers representing Southwest Virginia landowners in a series of five class-action lawsuits were arguing for access to Pigeon’s emails to determine whether they would bolster the fight for the royalties.

Pigeon continued to offer advice on how to defeat one of the lawsuits in an email sent to CNX attorney Jonathan Blank on Aug. 28, 2012, and later on Sept. 5, 2012.

In the first email, she suggested Blank could shoot down the case if he could find any mention in state or local records of royalty payments made to one of the main plaintiffs or to his relatives. This is the email where she complains that the plaintiff wears “many hats.”

In the second email, she merely states “To refresh your memory,” and includes a copy of the previous email where she recommends the records search.

Cuccinelli says his office joined the federal lawsuit only to fight the constitutional challenges to the Virginia Gas and Oil Act, which created the escrow accounts.

A Herald Courier review of her emails shows she suggested such courtroom tactics as combating a likely information request to discover other landowners owed royalties, as well as countering arguments against the amount of royalty proceeds they sought.

The emails have become a sore spot in Republican Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial run — CNX parent company CONSOL Energy has poured $140,044 into his campaign since he became attorney general in 2010.

McAuliffe Widens Lead Over Cuccinelli Ahead of Debate

UPDATED: In follow up to the first version of this post, a new Washington Post/Abt-SRBI poll puts Terry McAuliffe's lead over Ken Cuccinelli even larger that reported in the NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll.  Here are highlights from the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has vaulted into the lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in a Virginia governor’s race that has left many voters sour on both candidates, according to a new Washington Post/Abt-SRBI poll.

McAuliffe leads 47 percent to 39 percent among likely voters, with Libertarian Robert Sarvis’ 10 percent suggesting an unrest among voters not satisfied with either major-party contender.

The shift in the race has come almost exclusively from women voters, who prefer McAuliffe by a 24-point margin over Cuccinelli. The candidates were effectively tied among women in Washington Post poll in May.

McAuliffe’s strength among women is likely due in part to an intense campaign to portray Cuccinelli as a threat to women and the issues they might care about most deeply. A new McAuliffe ad, for instance, features a Norfolk OB-GYN speaking directly to the camera about how she is “offended” by Cuccinelli’s position on abortion rights.

The challenge for Cuccinelli is stark: Nearly half of all voters view him unfavorably, and they trust his opponent as much as or more than him on every major issue, according to the poll.

While the poll trends are encouraging, Cuccinelli not only needs to be defeated, but defeated in a landslide.  All efforts to motivate and turn out likely Democrat voters need to remain in high gear.

Like most Virginians, I am exhausted from this year's mud slinging gubernatorial race pitting the GOP's closeted and insane Ken Cuccinelli against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.  As my latest column in the September issue of VEER Magazine stated, McAuliffe may not be my dream candidate, but compared to sodomy law and personhood bill supporting Ken Cuccinelli, McAuliffe is the better choice for numerous reasons.  Apparently, other Virginians are beginning to draw a similar conclusion.  A new NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll shows McAuliffe with a five point lead over Cuccinelli.  Ten percent of voters polled are "undecided," so it is critical that efforts not let up in turning out voters to vote for a straight Democrat ticket on November 5, 2013.  Here are highlights from NBC Channel 4 in Washington on the poll findings:

Fueled by support with women and better likability ratings, Democrat Terry McAuliffe leads Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli 43-38 percent, with Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis at 8 percent among likely voters in the Virginia governor's race, a new NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll out Monday finds.

The poll of 546 likely voters and 1,069 registered voters, conducted from Sept. 17 to 19, comes two days before a debate between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli sponsored by NBC4 Washington and the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and moderated by NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd.

After a summer of mudslinging and negative campaign ads, neither candidate is well liked, but Cuccinelli has taken a bigger hit. Just 34 percent of registered voters view Cuccinelli favorably, while 47 percent say they have an unfavorable impression of him. Back in May, it was the reverse – 42 favorable, 27 percent unfavorable.

McAuliffe, on the other hand, is on the positive side – 41 favorable, 34 percent negative – though those unfavorable numbers are up 10 points as more people have gotten to know the former Democratic National Committee chairman under Bill Clinton and party fundraiser.

Sarvis may be something of an outlet for disaffected Republican voters who are calling themselves independents. With the national GOP brand suffering, there has been a trend nationally and in Virginia that more Republicans are identifying as independents. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, after all, won independents, but lost the election.

Between now and election day, I hope more voters learn about Cuccinelli's improper assistance to energy companies against Virginia landowners, his support for a personhood amendment that would criminalize all abortions and many forms of contraception, his desire to change divorce laws to favor fathers against women, and his extremism on other social issues, including employment protections for gay employees.

Consol Energy: Ken Cuccinelli Seeks to Paint His Assistant AG As Rogue Agent

 

Not surprisingly, Ken Cuccinelli is striving desperately to depict Senior Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pigeon - who improperly aided Consol Energy affiliated litigants in a lawsuit against Virginia landowners - as a rouge operative who needs to be thrown under the bus.  Having had numerous dealings  with the Attorney General's office - and a former law partner who was Virginia Attorney General - I find it incredible that Ms. Pigeon would have engaged in such extensive assistance to energy company litigants on her own.  Stated more directly, I can only conclude that Cuccinelli is lying to try to save his sorry ass.  He apparently believes that all Virginia voters are gullible cretins (he obviously needs to spend less time in the GOP/The Family Foundation bubble).  The Roanoke Times looks at the fairy tale that Cuccinelli is trying to spin.  Here are highlights:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office is distancing itself from the staffer who in a series of emails appears to have advised energy company lawyers in their defense of an ongoing lawsuit over natural gas royalties in Southwest Virginia.

Senior Assistant Sharon Pigeon “was not writing the emails at the direction of anyone in Richmond,” Cuccinelli spokesman Brian Gottstein wrote in a recent email to the Bristol Herald Courier.
Pigeon is now barred from further discussing with corporate lawyers their federal battle against regional landowners seeking gas royalties, Gottstein wrote, and her job of scrutinizing the cases’ potential impact on Virginia’s gas drilling laws has been handed to someone else.

The attorney general’s spokesman, when asked Friday to clarify what working outside the Richmond headquarters had to do with the emails, replied that he will no longer answer the newspaper’s questions because of the way it has covered the story.

“I’m not dealing with you anymore,” he wrote.

Pigeon is the legal adviser to the Lebanon-based Virginia Gas and Oil Board, which oversees the state-mandated escrow account now holding at least $30 million in disputed natural gas royalties. She swapped at least 52 emails from 2010 through 2012 with attorneys representing CNX Gas and EQT Production in their fight against regional landowners seeking those royalties.

A Herald Courier review of those emails shows that Pigeon suggested such courtroom tactics as combating a likely information request to discover other landowners who were owed royalties, as well as countering arguments against the amount of royalty proceeds they sought.

Her electronic messages — and questions about the relationship between the state’s highest legal office and corporate energy lawyers — have become a hot topic in the state’s gubernatorial race. Cuccinelli is the Republican candidate running against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

Adding to the debate is the role that CNX parent company CONSOL Energy has as one of the top financial contributors to Cuccinelli’s campaign. The company has dropped $140,044 into his campaign since he took over the AG’s office in 2010, according to campaign watchdog Virginia Public Access Project.

Cuccinelli defends Pigeon’s dealings with energy company lawyers as “overzealous” . . . . 

[C]onstitutional law expert Carl Tobias, of the University of Richmond School of Law, questions the contents of Pigeon’s emails and how they appear to offer legal help.  “It’s not in good judgment to be helping one side or the other,” Tobias said. “In this case, it’s sounding like she’s helping the defendants.”

Again, I find Cuccinelli's story line to be  unbelievable.  Like most Christofascists, Cuccinelli believes that the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness does not apply to him.

Why Ken Cuccinelli is Losing the Virginia Governor's Race

I continue to hope that Democrats do not get cocky and/or indifferent and fail to get out and vote on election day.  It is VITAL that the GOP slate of Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obenshain lose, but that they lose disastrously.  Over and over again we hear whiners in the GOP claim that the GOP loses because it fails to nominate sufficiently conservative candidates.  In this year's Virginia GOP slate ALL of the nominees are far to the right of Attila the Hun, so if they go down in flames, that tired platitude will go down with them and hopefully send a message to the GOP nationwide.  Politico looks at what one can only hope is Ken Cuccinelli's rapidly collapsing campaign.  Here are excerpts:

Republicans can’t believe this is happening: Democrat Terry McAuliffe — whose controversial business dealings and past life as a party moneyman make him a walking negative ad — has taken command of the Virginia governor’s race.

More than a dozen interviews last week with longtime Republican insiders around the Commonwealth yielded near-unanimous consensus that their candidate, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, lost significant ground over the summer and would lose if the election were held today.

The only real point of disagreement is how wide a margin it would be.  “It’s going to be a bath,” one prominent state Republican who wants Cuccinelli to win went so far as to say. Like several others, the person sought anonymity to speak candidly about the state of the race.

But a contest that looked winnable for Cuccinelli for much of the year has broken against him. Here’s a look at how it happened.

1. The gifts scandal

Gov. Bob McDonnell was expected to be a big asset for Cuccinelli. Instead, the Star Scientific scandal has turned the incumbent into a major liability.

The constant drip-drip of revelations by The Washington Post — of gifts and loans totaling more than $124,000 from the dietary supplement maker’s CEO, Jonnie Williams, to the governor and his family — was bad enough for Cuccinelli. But the candidate couldn’t easily distance himself from the scandal because he, too, accepted some $18,000 worth of gifts from Williams — and failed to disclose a chunk of them, as required by law.

2. A divided GOP

A significant number of Republicans remain on the sidelines in the race. A nonpartisan poll released last week by Purple Strategies, which had Cuccinelli trailing by 5 percentage points overall, found that only 77 percent of self-identifying Republicans currently support him.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who dropped out of the race for governor after the state GOP changed its nominating procedure to ensure Cuccinelli would win, said Friday he still isn’t comfortable endorsing Cuccinelli.

“Clearly, this is not just the most conservative, but the most ideologically-driven ticket that the Republican Party has ever put forth,” Bolling said in an interview. “There are a lot of Republicans, like me, very concerned about the direction of the party. We believe for the Republican Party to be a viable party in Virginia, we’ve got be a more mainstream party and communicate a more mainstream message.”

3. Northern Virginia has been neglected

Several Republicans complained that Cuccinelli has not spent nearly as much time campaigning in Northern Virginia as McDonnell did four years ago. A review of all his public events during the month of August shows only a handful of publicly announced appearances in the D.C. suburbs. He made far more stops in places that should be reliably red.

Cuccinelli‘s controversial views on abortion, gay marriage, skepticism of global warming and advocacy for the rights of fathers don’t play well in Northern Virginia, especially with women. He has tried not to emphasize those issues but also not backed away from his stances.  Operatives say that Cuccinelli has never created an identity beyond being a rock-ribbed social conservative.

4. Teflon Terry

 

“They’ve sold him as a businessman rather than a political fundraiser or a Clinton stooge,” said Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia political scientist, who switched the race to “Lean Democratic” before Labor Day.

5. The left is outspending the right

Democrats have significantly outspent Republicans on television so far, which has helped drive up Cuccinelli’s negatives, and that disparity is expected to continue for the duration of the race.

Through the end of June, Cuccinelli raised $7.7 million for the race and McAuliffe raised $12.7 million. The next fundraising report is due Monday.

Cuccinelli is beloved by the tea party, but he does not have an extensive donor network and has never built the deep relationships that McDonnell cultivated with many in the Richmond business community.

“The fundraising operation is sound, but they don’t have the brand and it’s too late to build it at this point,” said a Virginia Republican.

Again, it is CRUCIAL that gays, women, minorities and those who do not want a Christofascist inquisition state government turn out in mass and vote on election day.  Cucinelli, et al, need to lose by a landslide.s

Republicans Worried About Cuccinelli’s Prospects

Meanwhile, as the ad mentioned in the last post prepares to run, panic appears to be setting in Republican circles.  This is a very good thing because, if the perception becomes one that Cuccinelli has already lost, it may depress Republican turn out.  The risk, of course, is that Democrats become complacent and stay home.  This cannot be allowed to happen because in my view it is crucial that Cuccinelli and the rest of the GOP extremist slate lose, but that they lose by a landslide.  Why?  Because the GOP slate was nominated by The Family Foundation and Tea Party extremists.  A horrific loss may be what the Virginia GOP needs to convince what moderates are left and the so-call GOP establishment to wrench the GOP back from the forces of hate and bigotry best personified by the Christofascists and Tea Party factions.  The Washington Post looks at the growing panic in the Virginia GOP.  Here are excerpts:

National and state Republicans are increasingly nervous about Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign for Virginia governor, which they said is lagging behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe because of internal mistakes as well as forces beyond Cuccinelli’s control.

With seven weeks to Election Day, Cuccinelli is trailing in public polls and in fundraising. Republicans are scrambling to improve a field operation that underperformed in 2012. And while McAuliffe has faced scrutiny for his business dealings, the legal cloud surrounding Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and a probe of how the attorney general’s office has handled a gas royalties case have cast a spotlight on Cuccinelli’s own ethics that neither party expected.

Several Republican officials and operatives outside the campaign, most of whom requested anonymity in order to be frank about the state of the race, said they believe Cuccinelli is down . . . .

“I think McAuliffe has a real advantage in the race,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

Now that Labor Day has passed, Rothenberg said, voters’ “opinions are gelling. That doesn’t mean the race is over, but there is a significant burden now on Cuccinelli to change the trajectory. . . . He’s going to have to get a significant portion of the people who haven’t made up their minds yet.”

 A Quinnipiac University poll released last month showed McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli among likely voters, 48 to 42 percent. Three other automated polls released this month showed McAuliffe ahead by similar margins.

The state inspector general is investigating whether an assistant in Cuccinelli’s office gave improper legal help to energy companies battling with Southwest Virginia landowners over gas royalties.


Republicans lamented Cuccinelli’s fundraising disadvantage; through June 30, he had raised $7.7 million, while McAuliffe had raised $12.7 million. Fresh fundraising numbers are due Monday.

In a memo on the state of the race issued Friday, McAuliffe spokesman Brennan Bilberry suggested the Cuccinelli team was becoming “shrill” and desperate.
 
“It is clear that the Cuccinelli campaign is seeing the same things in their internal polls that Virginians see in public polls: Terry’s position continues to strengthen while Cuccinelli’s position continues to slip as a result of his ethics scandals and extreme social agenda,” Bilberry wrote.

Again, we need a massive Democrat turn out to hand Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obenshain a massive defeat.  The Family Foundation and Tea Party extremists nominated this nutcases and a devastating loss would be wonderful to hang around their necks.  Such a defeat would lead to delicious back biting and backstabbing within the Virginia GOP and perhaps embolden Republicans elsewhere to seize the party back from extremists and white supremacists.  The Family Foundation and Tea Party extremists need to become persona non gratis within the Virginia GOP from November 5th on forward.