He's in!

Yesterday's news was that State Senator Ken Cuccinelli had thrown his hat in the race for Attorney General in 2009. Last night Sen. Cuccinelli sent an email explaining his reasons. Since he keeps later hours than I on many nights, I read the email this morning.

The GOP is fortunate to have a deep bench of possibilities for the AG race including Sen. Cuccinelli. He wrote:

Well, last week I told you we’d move on to a new topic this week. This week’s topic? We’re going to run for Attorney General of Virginia in 2009. I hope that I can count on all the readers of The Compass to support our effort. For those of you that are ready to commit your support now, please click here and check the box in the upper right hand corner!

Here are some of my remarks from earlier today about why I am running and how I hope to carry forward a conservative, Republican agenda in this race and into the office of AG.

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This is a big day for us, as we’ve decided to proceed with an exploratory effort in pursuit of the Republican nomination for Attorney General in 2009. With the establishment of Bob McDonnell as our presumptive nominee for Governor and Bill Bolling running for re-election to Lt. Governor, we have the opportunity to have the strongest ticket Republicans have advanced in many years.

I believe that I can round out that ticket, bringing my history of conservative leadership and a strong grassroots network based in Northern Virginia. This would be a ticket with a record of fighting for Virginia families and businesses, representing the three most populous parts of the Commonwealth, and with values that I believe will also resonate strongly in the rest of Virginia as well.

I can win in November 2009 because I stand strongly for conservative principles and I have proven that I can explain them in way that demonstrates to an average Virginia family that I can make a positive difference in their daily lives. A difference in cutting red tape and fighting tax hikes that produces more jobs. A difference in protecting our liberties while keeping our families and children safe. A difference in cutting government waste and focusing government spending on core priorities like transportation, education, law enforcement and caring for those who cannot care for themselves, as we did in mental health reform this year. Meeting and talking to people about these and other issues is what I will be doing with my exploratory committee.

Northern Virginia has not been represented on a Republican ticket for the better part of two decades, and I believe that my fellow Republicans across Virginia are now as committed as I have always been to competing in Northern Virginia. All three of my campaigns have been well known for our grassroots success. Despite good fundraising on our part, the Democrats have made sure that we have been outspent in every race we’ve ever run, yet we’ve won with the support of a large group of truly good people who share my commitment to conservative principles. They have put us over the top every time, and I am confident that it is those folks that will get us over the top again – this time for Attorney General.

One of the other blessings we’ve had in our campaigns is a huge number of small donors. We literally have a network all over Virginia of thousands of folks that have written small checks to our campaign (hint, hint). Our donor base is more than three times the size of ANY other elected state Republican Delegate or Senator. If just our donors come to a convention for us, and half of them bring their spouse, we would have over 2/3 of the votes that we will need to win the nomination.

Of course, beyond our donor base, we’ve got a volunteer base of many hundreds of activist volunteers not only here in Northern Virginia, but we’ve had help from literally every corner of the Commonwealth – some of them have driven up to help us during our races, others have made phone calls or provided other volunteer help right from their homes. We will be calling on those folks to help again and to come to the convention in 2009 to put us over the top. Again, we have a large base of volunteer supporters to call upon in addition to our significant donor base, and we think that’s a great position to start this race. If they come through, we’ll win.

Now, there is a reason that we have the best volunteer and donor base in the Commonwealth. It is because I have stayed true to the conservative principles that I have advertised in my campaigns. Simply put, I am a conservative at heart. It’s not just positions, it’s who I am. I am unapologetically pro-life and anti-tax, and I have been the biggest defender of the 2nd Amendment and property rights in the Virginia State Senate since my arrival. And I have done all of this in some of the toughest political territory for a conservative, not merely in Northern Virginia, but in inner Northern Virginia, in Fairfax County – the biggest single vote prize in the Commonwealth in statewide races.

Part of the reason for the loyalty of our base is not simply my leadership on virtually every issue of interest to conservatives, it is also because I have been advancing conservative positions in what has been a very hostile environment for conservative principles in Virginia – the Virginia State Senate – and then going home to Fairfax to defend my conservative positions in election after election – always as one of the Democrats’ top targets statewide.

Because we’ve been working in Fairfax’s tough political territory, we’ve had to run the leanest and most efficient grassroots campaigns in the Commonwealth, and we will bring that same hard-working style of grassroots campaigning to the race for Attorney General. I am confident that we can be competitive statewide, but now we’re going to hit the road and find out. If the response to our exploratory effort from Virginia Republicans is positive this year, then we will proceed to a full blown campaign, probably by the end of the year.

This is the beginning of a new campaign, and we intend to run a campaign that the founding fathers would be proud of. A campaign that consistently applies conservative principles to today’s pressing issues. We don’t offer the citizens of Virginia a government that caters to their every whim and want, but a government that provides ample opportunity for each person to achieve his or her greatest potential.

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Podcast at Bearing Drift
Tonight, after our announcement, I joined Jim Hoeft for a podcast that you can listen to here:
http://bearingdrift.com/2008/03/31/vpod-state-sen-ken-cuccinelli-candidate-virginia-attorney-general/

Ready to Get On Board?
While we help all our candidates running in 2008, we’re also going to start recruiting for 2009 right now – today. Are you ready to commit to supporting me for the GOP nomination for Attorney General? I hope so! If you are, please sign up now by clicking here and signing up today! And then forward this on to your friends to sign them up too! First one to 10,000 wins!