Cuccinelli: More time on Obamacare could have swung election

A week after coming up short in his bid for governor, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli penned a thank-you note to supporters Tuesday, writing that a few more days of talking about the botched roll-out of President Obama’s health care overhaul could have been enough to push him over the top in his close race against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

“Perhaps my greatest disappointment in this year’s race is simply that the truth wasn’t enough,” Mr. Cuccinelli wrote Tuesday in his newsletter, The Cuccinelli Compass. “I know that sounds simple, and there’s a lot more to campaigns than being substantively better than the other side, but I’ve always trusted that truth counts for something … a lot actually. In fact, I think just a few more days of the truth of ObamaCare raining down on Virginians would have done the trick. But it was not to be, at least not for us, not in 2013.”

Many Republicans have cited Obamacare as one issue that helped “tighten” polls in the closing weeks, while Democrats have claimed their internal polling showed Mr. McAuliffe with a relatively consistent 2-4 point lead since the summer.

Mr. Cuccinelli’s chief campaign strategist, Chris LaCivita, has said that the partial government shutdown in October helped seal his candidate’s fate.

“It moved the disaster of Obamacare away from our narrative,” Mr. LaCivita told National Review Online. “It sucked the oxygen out of the room. Instead of talking about Obamacare, we were talking about the shutdown.”

In his newsletter, Mr. Cuccinelli also recounted some of the political volunteering he’s done over the past 22 years, saying that in 1991 he remembers how Republican Ron Hager “destroyed” Democrat John Faust in a debate for Arlington County Sheriff.

“I have never seen such a disparity between candidates where the obviously better candidate lost. It was an eye opener and it was a beginning,” he wrote. “Through all of my 22 years, I am still an idealist. It’s quite a handicap in politics. But it’s not in my nature to give it up.”

Mr. Cuccinelli also delivered a heartfelt thanks to his supporters and people who helped door knock, make phone calls, and do other things to campaign for him.

“I simply cannot convey how personally moving and humbling it is to me that you would personally campaign for me,” he said. “I am more grateful than a simple ’thank you’ can possibly communicate.”

“[D]oing all of these things also involves you in putting your own credibility on the line for me, and I am very cognizant of not letting you down,” he continued. “I am not perfect. I have never campaigned as being perfect, and I make mistakes all the time. But as much as I have tried to maintain my own honor and dignity, I am just as concerned with not ever having a supporter think or say, ’I’m embarrassed of being a Cuccinelli supporter.’”

“I’m sorry I didn’t pull out the win, but I leave the race behind me still committed to the first principles of this country, and I hope you are too!” Mr. Cuccinelli concluded. “Thank you and may God bless and keep each one of you.”