By Peter Galuszka
Like many, I will be truly glad after Tuesday’s election. I don’t recall a more tedious, uninspiring campaign. At this point it seems obvious that Kenneth Cuccinelli is going down. E.W. Jackson hasn’t a chance and if any Republican makes it it will be Mark Obenshain for attorney general.
Cuccinelli has always scared the hell out of me with his hard right policies. His staff is pugnacious and annoying. Last January after I wrote a cover story for Style Weekly, Cooch honcho and Swiftboater Chris LaCivita had a minor dispute about a quote and called me.
A smooth pro would have been polite, but LaCivita must have thought I had been in the Marine Corps with him or was easily intimidated. No Marine Corps in my case but I did spend three years reporting under the watchful eyes of the Committee for State Security in the Soviet Union. They were pros. You can tell.
LaCivita, whom I have never met in person, cursed me out with the “F” word and then informed me that “you will never work in Richmond again.” I found that odd since I have been a reporter in and around this area since the mid-1970s and don’t exactly have a shortage of work. The man’s attitude was ample evidence of what would come with the campaign he was advising.
There are too many points to repeat here of why Cuccinelli’s campaign should be a textbook example of how not to run a political race. It should be taught in classrooms and made available through the MOOCs we love so much.
Here’s a short list: Cuccinelli thought he was smart by rigging the convention and sticking it to Bill Bolling and got stuck with Jackson; he did not resign as attorney general and was dumped on with legal conflicts in GiftGate, ChefGate and GasGate; he didn’t pay back his Jonnie Williams’ goodies fast enough; he was too quick to publicly throw Robert McDonnell under the bus; he got caught with the GOP intransigence in Washington; he never could distance himself from his anti-women and anti-gay views; he had no real economic or jobs plan; GOP business donors were revolted by him; and so on.
The biggest problem was that he thought he could ride the wave of the Tea Party that had been disintegrating months before.
I’ll stop now because this is getting boring. I recommend some excellent analysis. One is in Politico. The other ran a week or so ago in the Washington Post and is by Norm Leahy and Paul Goldman.
As far as what is next, ethics comes to mind. If you are interested, read my piece today in the Post which predicts little change and why.
I’ll be revisiting the ethics material later.
