Because (along with New Jersey) Virginia is one of only two states electing a governor next month, the election here is garnering a great deal of attention, as it should. But there is more than the governor’s office at stake, and some of the other races are also fascinating, one of which is the election for attorney general. Ken Cuccinelli, a very conservative Republican state senator, is running against Steve Shannon, a very liberal state delegate.
Those of you interested in Virginia politics (and this year, everyone should be) may find the following excerpt from The Cuccinelli Compass, the candidate’s Oct. 10 newsletter, of interest. After mentioning “the Nobel hilarity” and quoting John Podhoretz’s comments about it, Cuccinelli described recent events on the campaign trail:
Last Friday, October 2nd, I debated my opponent on WTOP (available at WTOP.com). In that debate, we each had the chance to ask the other a single question. What was his question to me about? Crime? The economy? Nope. Global warming. Well, at least you know his priorities.
On the other hand, I asked him when he read the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Melendez-Diaz case from this summer, as he began to repeatedly get the law wrong under Melendez… even on one of his own bills!
Then, this past Wednesday, we had our second debate within five days. Several interesting things occurred at this debate.
First, my opponent walked in with 20 or so orange-clad Liuna union members (http://liuna.org/). Not a common occurrence in a right to work state. [Sidenote: I didn’t know what “Liuna” was until I got home and looked it up…]. They left toward the end of the debate, which seemed very strange at the time (see below).
I’m not aware of such a presence at ANY general election joint appearance by Virginia candidates EVER. Though it should not be surprising when of the 11 donors over $10K my opponent reported for July and August, 7 of them were unions, including the NY/NJ local of the SEIU. Just so you know where his money is coming from.
As another note here, one of the attendees at the debate had this interesting report on his interaction with the Liuna folks:
“During a brief ‘technical break’ the orange clad union supporters of Steve Shannon departed, when I asked someone why they were leaving they explained they were only being paid until 8:30 so the bus was leaving.” (Original comment at: http://dungareeliberty.wordpress.com/)
Second, we got to ask each other one more question. I went first and asked my opponent to identify the divisions in the Attorney General’s office and what each one does. The non-response was deafening. A Youtube clip of the exchange was put up by one of the bloggers in attendance here. Please go take a look at the embarrassing Youtube link.
Here’s what Amy Gardner of the Washington Post said about this exchange in her blog post :
“The best moment was probably when Cuccinelli asked Shannon to name all the divisions in the attorney general’s office. Shannon said he’d get to that in a second but first wanted to address Cuccinelli’s previous remarks about a state tax increase in 2004.
Cuccinelli leaped to his feet, turned to moderator Scott Thuman of WJLA-TV, and said:
“Mr. Moderator, in court I’d object to a witness not answering the question.”
Oh well, it wasn’t court. Shannon didn’t answer the question.”
The court of public opinion will render its decision on Nov. 3.
