There were many factors that led to Ken Cuccinelli’s defeat in the Virginia election. His allies in the state party decided to have a convention and not a primary, thus depriving Cuccinelli of legitimacy in the eyes of many Republicans. He did not clarify his social stances and allowed Terry McAuliffe to paint him as a Rick Santorum clone. The false flag candidacy of Sarvis siphoned Libertarian leaning votes from Cuccinelli. All these factors contributed to the defeat, but there was a big one that might have proved fatal.
The RNC all but abandoned Cuccinelli and sent him no monetary support. Granted the polls had him down at one point by 17%, but that gap started to close in the final week. Despite the poll movement, the RNC did not send any money nor resources to help push Cuccinelli over the top. This was an act of pure treachery and its obvious, the GOP Establishment abandoned Cuccinelli when he could have used the help.
In the recent government shutdown fight I found myself in polite (on my part at least!) disagreement with the elements of the right inclined to denounce the “Republican establishment.” No need to rehash all that again. But, I will say that in the wake of the Cuccinelli defeat, I think the critics of the establishment have the better side of the argument.
If the folks running the party want the tea partiers to support their preferred candidates — when they’re the nominee, at least — it should work the other way around as well. It now appears that Cuccinelli, a flawed candidate running against an even more flawed human being, could have pulled this thing out if he’d had more help at the end. In fairness, the Republican Governor’s Association did help Cuccinelli, but it came too early. The RNC treated him like a write-off. I can understand that temptation when Cuccinelli looked like a sure loser. But I don’t understand why, when ObamaCare became a big issue, the RNC couldn’t have done more. I’m sure it’s hard to ramp up at the last second. But so what? Things are going to be hard in lots of ways for as far as the eye can see. Hard can’t be an excuse anymore.
Ken Cuccinelli would not be my first choice if I had to choose a Republican candidate. If it comes down to him or a Marxist, then I would get drunk and and vote for Cuccinelli. Life is not fair and you don’t always get the choices you want in life. The Republican Establishment abandonment of Ken Cuccinelli is just another example of the dysfunction in today’s Republican Party. Sadly I see nothing changing and this mentality of losing is frankly really idiotic.
Tags: Jonah Goldberg, Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia
