by Bruce Majors
Ken Cuccinelli, the Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2013, spoke to a breakfast of conservative activists Wednesday, and expressed glee about Terry McAuliffe’s election loss.
“Terry beat me by two and a half percent in 2013, and Glenn Youngkin beat him by two and a half percent this year,” Cuccinelli said. “When I ran against McAuliffe he had no record, having never held office, and he hid, making the minimal amount of campaign appearances. He was the fresh face. This time his opponent Glenn Youngkin was the fresh face, and McAuliffe spent the campaign whining that he was releasing hundreds of pages of White Papers, but no one paid any attention. Except journalists, who are Democrats, but even they fact checked McAuliffe and said he was lying about his record.”
Cuccinelli’s most interesting remarks were in reply to a question from an Arlington first responder, who wanted to know what Governor Youngkin or the Virginia GOP would be doing about county vaccine mandates for government employees.
Arlington County firemen, EMTs, police and other unvaccinated county employees will lose their jobs 16 days after Youngkin takes office if county mandates stay in place, and the remaining vaccinated workers may be forced to do double duty to take up the slack. Youngkin supporters, including those at this monthly breakfast lecture of the Arlington based Leadership Institute, have been expressing concern that the new governor may not be aggressive enough in opposing punitive county policies directed against the unvaccinated.
“Personnel is policy,” Cuccinelli replied. “There was a time when no one knew who the state Director of Public Health was or who heads the Department of Education. No longer. It’s important that good people step forward who can serve in these positions, even if they have to take a pay cut.”
“If we had known then what we know now,” Cuccinelli said referring to his work on President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, “we would have been having chicken pox parties” for young and healthy people so they could develop natural immunity. “And with the Omicron variant, from what we have seen so far, that’s probably what we should be doing now.”
“Glenn, Jason Miyares and Winsome Sears have an important job to check the regulatory overreach that will be coming from Biden and the federal government. And I hope Jason Miyares also prosecutes the Stalinist left of the Democratic Party which had free reign under Northam and Herring — I call him ‘red Herring’ — including the Fairfax County officials who broke the law by counting ballots that were mailed in too late.”
“Youngkin, Sears and Miyares need to show the voters that there is value in electing Republicans to office, so that they are willing to do it again. They will have to calibrate what they can get done since Republicans have a 52 to 48 majority in the state house but only have 19 state senators to the Democrats 21 — they have to get one Democrat to vote with them in the senate for Winsome Sears to exercise a tie-breaking vote. But things do look good to pick up seats in 2022.”
Cuccinelli emphasized that Youngkin must deliver because everything lined up perfectly in 2021. “Besides being fresh and new, Youngkin was able to neutralize an advantage that is McAuliffe’s one and only ability — he can raise money. When I ran we raised just as much money as the Democrats from Virginians, but then Tom Steyer — Steyer the Liar — came in with $11 million because he was upset I had investigated fake research results of a climate change activist at the University of Virginia, and then Michael Bloomberg gave another $2 million to push for gun prohibition in Virginia. But Youngkin had had a very successful career with the Carlyle Group, and he could match, if needed, whatever Terry raised from outside of the state.”
Cuccinelli listed the factors in the election he believes lined up for a GOP victory: Youngkin was a fresh face with no record to attack, the campaign could match the donations from the billionaire Democrat donors of Hollywood and Manhattan, a huge turnout of poll watchers and election integrity activists prevented almost all election fraud, and an unprecedented turnout of voters impassioned by highly motivating issues like education.
Education voters, according to Mr. Cuccinelli, broke 71% to 28% for Youngkin. “Terry was a little helpful,” referring to McAuliffe’s famous debate gaffe where he stated that parents should have no control over their children’s education. “I called Glenn that night and said, ‘My God I wish he’d been this honest when he was running against me.’”
“Terry McAuliffe is not a good person. It’s no accident that all the Democrat sheriffs endorsed Glenn Youngkin. The Virginia Democratic Party is infected with the same radicalism as the national party, where criminals are raised up above citizens. The Biden administration is even more radical than Obama, with wacky appointees you can barely believe. And they will be supported by the media, because in every campaign it is two against one — the Democrat and the media against the Republican. Youngkin has to oppose the Democrats’ extremism.”
Northern Virginia resident Bruce Majors has written for The Hill, the Los Angeles Times, Reason, and other publications. He writes a Substack column, The Insurrection.
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