Cuccinelli: In your heart, you know he's to the right of right

[Blue_Tires]

Attention, Virginia voters: If the polls are correct and nothing big changes in the next 12 days, you're going to elect a state attorney general who's so ardently conservative he makes gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell sound like a mealy-mouthed moderate.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II of Fairfax County, the Republican candidate to be the state's top lawyer, portrays the environmental movement as a socialist ploy and said in 2003 that homosexuality is just plain wrong.

If elected, he promises to use the state attorney general's office as a platform to advance his causes, such as reducing Virginia's divorce rate and battling with Washington over laws or regulations that he thinks violate states' rights. His idea of a compelling issue was championing a measure last year to make it easier to deny unemployment benefits to immigrant workers fired for not speaking English.

Cuccinelli, who's running against Del. Stephen C. Shannon (D-Fairfax), is ahead in the polls in what opinion surveys suggest will be a Republican sweep Nov. 3 of the races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. He's gotten this far without stirring up much opposition partly because the governor's race draws most of the attention and partly because the Democrats have failed to shine a spotlight on Cuccinelli's controversial views.

As a result, although Virginia has turned more moderate this decade, there's a good chance it will put a militant conservative in a high-profile office in Richmond while many voters are looking the other way.

To his credit, Cuccinelli, 41, is ahead also because he's an adept, hardworking politician. A business lawyer who has been in the Senate for seven years, he comes across as agreeable rather than angry, even while he takes evident relish in staking out combative positions.

"You'll have an attorney general who's ready to fight with Washington," he promised a July 4 meeting of the anti-tax Tea Party movement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/21/AR2009102104195.html?wprss=rss_print/metro