At 1 PM Wednesday, the Cuccinelli campaign promises to unleash a “major announcement” about the McAuliffe campaign. So major that they have set up a live feed link for the event:
Live streaming video by Ustream
This may be interesting. The headline at the website is “Terry’s vision for Virginia — Free lunches and poor math.”
Okay. But the words “major announcement” used in the press release set the bar quite high. If it is genuine news, great. If it’s a rehash of what we have already heard, that’s bad.
We’ll know which it is at 1.
UPDATE: Or maybe the campaign has already told the Washington Post
The major announcement could be all about the price tag for Terry McAuliffe’s programs:
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II (R) has tallied up the cost of his Democratic opponent’s wish list and found that Terry McAuliffe would need nearly $14 billion in new tax revenue to fulfill his campaign promises in the next four years, according to a draft of the Republican’s analysis.
Cuccinelli’s campaign said McAuliffe’s expansive vision of Virginia government means that taxes would have to increase by more than $1,700 on a typical family of four to pay for everything.
“McAuliffe wants to spend 60 times more money than is available to him,” according to a draft of the Republican’s analysis.
Now the “major announcement” could be something entirely different, but given the title of the viewing page for the live feed — “free lunch” — I doubt it.
This would put the announcement squarely in the “not new” category. The candidates have debated this issue in the past.
Are McAuliffe’s ideas costly? You bet. Does he have a way to pay for them? Aside from Medicaid expansion, no — and even that supposed windfall relies upon dodgy assumptions. Would any of McAuliffe’s ideas be adopted if he is governor? Doubtful, and even more so if he fails to crack 50 percent of the vote.
And on a side note, I do find it very interesting that the Post has this story beforehand.
UPDATE 2 — Yes, it’s all about the price tag
The official documents, oddly and irritatingly embargoed by the campaign until 1 PM (unless you are the Washington Post) can be read here.
I understand that Cuccinelli is briefing the MSM on a conference call about all of this right now.
