Glad to see Bolling escaped a lot of the media editorializing.

As far as Cuccinelli being a drag, I agree that it is a welcome relief to have conservatives running for office for a change. At one point in time, McDonnell’s conservatism was never questioned, but Cuccinelli has done that without the stumbles of McDonnell. Stumbles McDonnell has played liberal “moderate” in order to get over and distance himself from that past.

As was said, Levar Stoney tries to paint them all as extreme and ineffectual by saying,”Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli all have long careers of pushing divisive social issues instead of getting things done for Virginians.” This strategy is vulnerable.

A key point in their attack will be to focus on Cuccineli as the poster child of extremes – Cuccinelli walks the talk. He has that priviledge because he hasn’t stepped on political land mines nearly as badly as McDonnell. Cuccinelli doesn’t have to, nor does he need to apologize for being conservative.

The easiest way to defeat this current strategy is to attack that key part of it. Defeat the premise that Cuccinelli is a ineffectual right wing nut. Actually, that is pretty easy. He was a prolific legislator that got things done. Ask the press about Cuccinelli’s bill SB 781 that helped lead us to real eminent domain reform. Doing nothing to get things done? Tell that to the NRA, VCDL, and other groups concerned about the 2nd amendment. He gets things done. How about his leadership in getting Virginia to resist by legislation, the Federal Government’s insistance on the REAL ID. His sponsorship of legislation in 2006 and later support for laws protecting us from identity theft. His sponsorship of succesful legislation that required the Commonwealth and contractors of the commonwealth to check legal status of new hires and provides the ability to cut relations with contractors that cheat by hiring illegals. He consistently opposed giving tutition assistance to illegal immigrants. Yes, he opposed Warner’s tax increase and Kaine’s tax increase……so? That’s a good thing! Advertise it.

If Ken Cuccinelli is SOOOOOOO extreme, why does he have so much support in Libertarian circles? Why all the support of the Ron Paul movement? Yes, the social conservatives are an important core of Cuccinelli’s support. The fact that Cuccinelli is successful in uniting social conservatives and fiscal conservtives, attracting former GOP to come back, and that he can WIN as a conservative in liberal NOVA scares the pants off of them! How can they possibly paint Cuccinelli as an extreme “nut” given all that? It won’t make sense.

Hammer the positives of all three. Focus on what they have DONE. Point to the mess we have now and make the argument that this ticket has what it takes to bring Virginia back to fiscal sanity, the rule of law, and go BEYOND the TITLE of being “Best for Business” and actually BRING business and jobs here.

Of the issues that you list as Virginians finding important, I would put transportation and education higher up in that list. The OCS is a national issue; and while the governor gets input, it is more important that the initiative be supported at the national level. While it would be great to have a governor who is a booster for that, it should not be their primary focus. Coal is about to be killed this year by national climate change legislation. So, it won’t make a whole lot of difference what our governor thinks about it.

What I did find telling was his mentioning of public-private partnerships to solve the state’s transportation woes. I assume he was referring to the PPTA, which has projects underway. I did not get a sense at the VDOT public meetings concerning the 395 HOT lanes that this was really popular. I don’t know how the 495 ones went. With the 395 project for our public financing, we get a private company to repaint the shoulder to create an extra lane and then a separate private entity will toll all three lanes. They are planning on doing a tolling project in Hampton Roads too. So, it would be interesting to hear what folks there think about it. I think more than just NoVA voters will have a problem with congestion pricing and selling off transportation assets to an unregulated private entity (unregulated in the sense that they are not regulated as a Public Service Company like Dominion, for example). So, if Bob’s plan is to sell off state transportation assets to private companies so that the state is off the hook for remedying the transportation problem, I think he should really spread that message here in NoVA and Hampton Roads. I think it will go over especially well in Loudon, Prince William and Fairfax where commuters will bear the brunt of the tolling burden.

Notice no mention of pro-life or anti-gay marriage stuff death penalty or gun rights. Does that mean we are ignoring those issues or they aren’t important? of course not.

It is however all about messaging for the biggest audience and defeating negative sterotypes. This is what smart politicians do running in a general election. Thats how you win in November. Its something all the candidates should keep in mind especially when they are interacting with the press.

Asking tough questions, preferably well-researched ones = reporters doing their jobs
Hectoring and lecturing and pretending the lectures are questions = lazy hacks, not reporters.

I saw Mrs. McDonnell and Mrs. Bolling sitting together at the presser and they were grim-faced. They know exactly the treatment their husbands are in for from the press for the next few months and I don’t blame them for not looking exactly delighted over it.