Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The “Cooch” Makes Things Really Interesting

—

by

Peter Galuszka
in , , , ,

By Peter Galuszka

Kenneth Cuccinelli’s announcement that he will run for Virginia governor in 2013 presages some very interesting days ahead.

The controversial and hard-right Attorney General has been a highly polarizing figure in state politics. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, he stubbornly  insists that humans have little to do with climate change and has indulged in a months-long witch hunt against a former University of Virginia scientist who, like most of his colleagues in the civilized world, do see a link. Cuccinelli has trampled on gay rights by refusing to extend legal protections against discrimination against gays in public universities. He has fought headlong against President Barack Obama’s health care reform, spending plenty of taxpayer money in the process.

Meanwhile, Cuccinelli hasn’t come up with any positive proposals or platforms. Perhaps that’s not his job as attorney general, but voters have no clear idea of what he stands for, only what he is against. Given Cuccinelli’s obvious and robust reactionary ideas, it will be hard for him to remake himself into a moderate as Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, once a hard-line social conservative, seems to have done successfully.

The state GOP establishment has been pushing Lt. Gov. Bill. Bolling as McDonnell’s successor, notably by calling him the “go to” guy on jobs. The fact is that Bolling is pleasant —  and utterly forgettable.

Who else could run among the Republicans? One possibility is Sean Connaughton, McDonnell’s secretary of transportation and former chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors. Connaughton is a technocrat professional who once head the National Maritime Administration and has been both a Coast Guard and a Navy officer. He’s been on a tear recently. He fired just about the entire board of the Virginia Ports Authority for failing to keep up with Baltimore and Savannah and has been the brains behind a big bond push to build new roads. Although his methods may be heavy-handed, at least Connaughton is a doer, not a reactionary. Should he run, Connaughton might be a more reasonable choice for the GOP.

Either way, the state Democrats badly need to get their act together. And fast. They are going to have to come up with a better candidate than Creigh Deeds who was easily beaten by McDonnell last time.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

8 responses to “The “Cooch” Makes Things Really Interesting”

  1. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Great point about Sean Connaughton. A doer. Exactly.

    My personal belief is that Terry McAuliffe has been gearing up for 2013 race since he lost the primary for the 2009 race. I see Terry as a doer as well.

    There could even be a dark horse or two in the race. Governor Groovy G Groveton. Has a nice ring to it. My forst act would be to move the state capital from Richmond to Cape Charles. Better fishing in Cape Charles.

  2. Neil Haner Avatar
    Neil Haner

    McAuliffe is indeed geared to run, and certainly will have the financial backing to do so. He’ll be the “establishment” candidate, and I expect Governor Kaine will endorse him (barring anything seismic in 2012). But he will be too easily painted as an “outsider.” Legit or not, he isn’t a home grown politician, and we live in an era where most Virginians are going to be very skeptical of a DC insider running for the Statehouse.

  3. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Neil:

    Your points about McAuliffe are well taken. He will be painted as an “outsider” and even as a “carpet bagger”. I find that odd. George Allen isn’t a native Virginian. He came to Virginia when his Dad became the coach of the Redskins. Tim Kaine came to Virginia after law school presumably to marry Linwood Holton’s daughter. McAuliffe came to attend Grorgetown Law School and never left.

    The bigger issue (what ever the rhetoric) is McAuliffe’s “Washington insider” status. That’s a fair criticism. However, he largely earned that status with the same position that Tim Kaine took after (during?) his term as governor.

    He also never held elected office. Going from zero to governor is something more likely in California than in Virginia.

    I agree with Peter that Cooch, Connaughton and Bolling are the players on the Republican side.

    I see Cooch as more of a political opportunist than a conservative reactionary. He did (correctly, in my opinion) call into question the tax money spent on Michael Mann’s research at UVa. He also (incorrectly, in my opinion) tried to block benefits to gay couples. However, he also opined that George Mason’s ban on gun possession (on campus) was legit. A true conservative reactionary would never do that. A political opportunist however, after recalling the massacre at Virginia Tech, would have done exactly what the Cooch did.

    Bolling is a non-entity. He just hasn’t been able to get out of McDonnell’s shadow or Cuccinelli’s shadow.

    Connaughton is a bit of a dark horse but has some momentum. I also don’t see a lot of political tilt to Sean. While he may be a reactionary, he hasn’t shown it so he is well positioned to present himself as a slightly right of center moderate – perfect political positioning in Virginia.

    McAuliffe will run. He has spent a lot of time downstate trying to demonstrate that he can bring jobs to Virginia. One assumes he wanted to counteract the once plausible theory that Bill Bolling would be the “go to guy” for jobs. I personally think Terry would be a good governor but he has the baggage we already discussed along with the lingering Atlantic Crossing / Global Crossing issue.

    Don McEachin is a plausible candidate. The overwhelming anti-liberal bias of the 2010 national elections seems to have abated somewhat in the 2011 state election. There are still headwinds against candidates perceived as liberal but it may not be the kiss of death by 2013. The 2012 national elections will tell us a lot about the state’s attitude toward liberals.

    I don’t see Creigh Deeds or Brian Moran taking another crack at the office.

    This leaves room for one or two more Democratic contenders – especially moderate Democrats. I could easily see a young, energetic and moderate Democratic candidate running through the primary on the “I can beat Cooch” ticket and then pushing more toward the center during the run up to the general election.

    The tell tale sign is a Democrat pledging allegiance to the second amendment. Or, finding a Democrat pictured in a newspaper with a shotgun in his (or her) hands as goose and duck season gets rolling.

    It should be an interesting election in 2013.

    Any thoughts on 2012’s Kaine – Allen match? Is there any way they can both lose?

  4. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    not a bad narrative Groovey! but I don’t really agree with the idea that Cooch is not a reactionary.

    He’s definitely not in the mold of say Elliot Spitzer in his days as AG looking after the more mundane (but more important) rights of consumers…

    Cooch is a right wing zealot… who has used the AG office to pursue an agenda that has little to do with the normal and typical AG mission.

    he has used the office to promote his own biases….in m view.

    and the Republican establishment in Va …agrees… that as Gov he’s not repent and could ultimately seriously damage the Republican “brand” in Va.

    We want Govs that focus on the legitimate needs and problems of the state not the right-wing agenda on guns and global warming …abortion… etc.

  5. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    More double standard. It is wrong for a conservative Republican to investigate how public dollars are spent with respect to global warming research, but not wrong for a liberal Democrat to do the same. MSM absent on duty yet one more time. Maybe it’s wrong to falsify documents with taxpayer dollars. http://www.npr.org/2011/10/14/141365935/polar-bear-researcher-to-be-re-interviewed-by-feds

  6. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    conflation here..

    first the AG of the US is not the one who is “investigating”….

    second, the AG of states have no role in global warming and a very tenuous with respect to the use of state dollars in educational research.

    if you look at the totality of university research papers .. they are very diverse..all over the map on a wide variety of issues.. and vigorously and even vociferously debated and disputed within the scientific community – not to mention the “research” paid for by cigarette and other companies….

    the Cooch has cherry-picked one particular area with a highly partisan context…

    imagine what university research would look like in Va.. if the AG would have his staff go through all of it to basically say that if the content/results of the study differed with political ideology that witch-hunt investigations would become the norm.

    what Coouch is doing in wrong on so many levels while at the same time he ignores legitimate questionable things going on in higher ed….and it’s connections to private industry.

    Imagine if the AG of the US started investigating colleges on the pretext that because they received Fed money… the AG of the US should be going through papers looking for waste, fraud and abuse especially on papers that oppose current administration policies.

    wrong TMT… and if this is what you really…want.. do you want the Dems to do it when it’s their turn?

  7. TMT Avatar
    TMT

    As I recall, Tim Kaine went after Patrick Michaels, state climatologist, who doubted human-caused global warming. But Kaine was a liberal, so it was OK.

  8. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    no it wasn’t.. it’s never ok no matter who does it. The NPR link you provided is curious… since the IG is talking primarily with a Republican Senator.

    Something is rotten in Denmark.

    First – I do NOT think the govt should be looking at research papers from any agency to see if they are consistent with the govt’s version of the truth.

    that’s odious and dangerous.

    Second – if we ARE going to do it – then it should be on a totally consistent basis not a cherry-picking, witch-hunt basis.

    Third – this should be really low priority use of taxpayer dollars. There needs to be something much stronger than “inappropriate scientific conduct”. AG’s are looking for violations of law not violations of political correctness.

    no witch hunts.. they’re dumb and they really do distract us from much more important things and the last person I want for Gov is someone who things such investigations are more important than other issues.

    You know.. in terms of Climate Change…none other than DOD has been studying what they might have to do if it comes to pass.

    Why is it wrong for Va to do something similar?

    why is it wrong for govt agencies to pursue studies on the potential of GW?

Leave a Reply

Read More