Democratic Party starts assaulting Cuccinelli early before he becomes GOP nominee for governor

While Ken Cuccinelli prepares to be crowned the Republican Party’s prince to take over at Virginia’s Executive Mansion, the Democratic Party is rolling out two early lines of attack against the Commonwealth’s attorney general.

Cuccinelli’s coronation as the Virginia Republican Party’s nominee for governor will take place on Saturday in Richmond. On Monday, though, Democratic Party operatives, strategists, and members participated in two different conference calls which were used to criticize Cuccinelli for his botched witch hunt into the research of former University of Virginia climate scientist, Michael Mann, as well as Cuccinelli’s co-sponsorship of ‘personhood legislation’ while a state senator in 2007.

While these issues and messages are poignant with the Democratic Party base in Virginia, if the goal is reach out to Virginia’s ‘undecided’ and/or independent voters, the issues of climate change and personhood don’t strike me as the most effective issues (much to my everlasting dismay!).

Instead, most Virginian’s are arguably concerned about economic growth, civil liberties more broadly, and a vision of where Virginia will be ten or twenty years down the road.   

If the goal is to fire up the Democratic Party base, Democratic candidates would go further if they put themselves more firmly in the public spotlight. For those who are even aware of who the candidates running for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General are ,it’s doubtful that they know very much about these candidates, maybe with the exception of Sen. Mark Herring.

The Democratic Party has a solid group of political candidates for these posts, but the people of Virginia need to see and hear from them, not just dyed-in-the-wool Democrats.

This is the way I perceive the political landscape. A lot can and probably will change between now and November, including Virginia’s familiarity with the candidates who are running. And when Virginians do become more familiar with the Democratic Party candidates in particular, I hope more issues will be hammered upon other than issues of personhood and climate change, as greatly important as these issues are.

A Cuccinelli governorship, in particular, would be like allowing the uncle that no one really gets along with to take over the family’s Fortune 500 company. The results will most likely be dismal.