Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ken Cuccinelli addresses SWACers ... running for Attorney General

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax)

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli is introduced by Kurt Michael. Sen. Cuccinelli is from Fairfax, and Kurt was chairman of Fairfax City Republicans in his earlier years.





Sharing dinner together as we continued the conversation after the Senator addressed the group.



Kim Wiseman talks with Sen. Cuccinelli.








"Unapologetically conservative."

That's the way Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, who has spent six years in the Virginia State Senate, describes himself. He has details of the battles during his time in the General Assembly to back him up.

Speaking to a packed room of Republicans at Shoney's in Staunton on Wednesday night, he was in the middle of traveling and meeting folks up and down the I-81 corridor.

A conservative Republican representing a seat in the more-and-more liberal Northern Virginia area, he has proven he can hold onto his conservative message and win.

Same in the State Senate where he battled his own Party on conservative and tax issues. Standing with his principles against Democrats and moderate/liberal Republicans, he joked that he spent his time beating the heck out of their fists with his face. A self-described fighter, he said you have to be in it for the right reasons which, for him, is a conservative agenda.

"Why is it only about holding power and not about principles?" he asked.

He laughed about the "political calendar" which is the one where everything never gets done. It just goes on and on and on.... Many in the room chuckled in agreement.

Republicans, he said, need to stand by their conservative message. When they don't they lose.

State senate leaders, he said, have led us into minority status. He battled John Chichester as well as Russ Potts, the Republican who ran against Republican Jerry Kilgore three years ago. Republicans stopped pursuing Republican policies ... and they lost.

He candidly added he would fight friends when they were wrong just as much as he would fight Democrats.

A hard-working home school dad, he has been outspent in each of his three campaigns but, as he said, never out-worked. A lawyer by trade, he tirelessly divides his time between work, family, and politics but, as he laughed, out of 110,000 votes there is one veto -- his wife. She is his backing in all that he does.

Now running for the Republican nomination for the 2009 Attorney General position, he is crisscrossing the state to meet citizens, firmly believing candidates need to give people a reason to vote. He is spreading his message to fellow Virginians as he builds an impressive grassroots donor base.

At the same time, he is building up a grassroots volunteer organization that will, hopefully, win the nomination process next year. Part of that group will include the numerous home school families throughout the state who are well aware of Sen. Cuccinelli's work in the state senate the past six years ... and they are in agreement with his conservative message and admire that a fellow home school parent is willing to sacrifice to serve the citizens of the Commonwealth.

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli ... expect to hear much more from him in the near future. Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County residents are grateful for his stop to offer an opportunity to hear from this principled candidate.

News links:
- Waynesboro News Virginian
- NBC TV-12

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell

No comments: