GERAGHTY: McAuliffe vs. Cuccinelli is a dry run for Hillary 2016

Writing at The Morning Jolt, Jim Geraghty raises some excellent points for conservatives to ponder.

Why the Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe Race Matters to You, Even If You Don't Live in Virginia

First, does anyone want to argue that Ken Cuccinelli–Virginia's attorney general, and the current GOP candidate for governor – is not a conservative?

• Led the legal challenge to Obamacare.
• Defended Arizona's immigration-enforcement statute.
• Filed legal challenges to the EPA's findings on greenhouse gases being a threat to human health and thus an emission they have the authority to regulate.
• Supports right to life from conception until death, supported and pushed several pro-life bills while in the state legislature.
• Endorsed by the NRA.

...So if you're one of those folks who believes that Mitt Romney was a RINO squish, and that Republicans always lose when they nominate RINO squishes, then you really, really, really need Ken Cuccinelli to win this year.

If Ken Cuccinelli – Mr. Conservative Record – loses against a flawed competitor like Terry McAuliffe, in a purple state like Virginia . . . and simultaneously, Governor Hug-Obama-After-a-Hurricane-and-Move-Left wins in a landslide up in New Jersey . . . the message to the rest of the Republican party will be pretty clear. What you fervently believe – conservatives win, moderate squishes lose – will be refuted in the eyes of many Republicans.

Proud conservatives like to believe that their like-minded grassroots voters are, collectively, like a sleeping giant... [but if] the conservative grassroots are indeed a sleeping giant, so far they're hitting the "snooze" button on this race. At least through mid-summer, Cuccinelli's fundraising is pretty "meh"...

Cuccinelli, 44, had $2.7 million in cash as of the end of June, compared with $6 million for McAuliffe, 56, the former national Democratic Party chairman and fundraiser. While McAuliffe had been expected to out-raise Cuccinelli, the Republican is lagging behind where McDonnell was at this point in his 2009 race, when he had $4.9 million in cash on hand.

What, national conservatives, the stakes aren't high enough? You don't feel sufficiently invested in the success of Cuccinelli in November?

Okay, then think of the Terry McAuliffe 2013 campaign as a dress rehearsal for the Hillary Clinton 2016 effort.

Because that's how the McAuliffe team sees themselves ... In fact, McAuliffe and some of his top allies have suggested to big donors and consultants that supporting his campaign is a way to get in on the ground floor of Hillary 2016, several donors and operatives told POLITICO.

Geraghty's right.

We Constitutional conservatives like to think we have far more support for our principles than the RINO establishment has for its non-principles.  We need to prove it when it comes to serious candidates like Cuccinelli, especially when lined up against loathsome, crooked-as-a-corkscrew moonbats like Terry McAuliffe.

If you have a few bucks to spare, please drop by Ken Cuccinelli's site and help out.


You can read Geraghty most days he decides to wake up before noon by subscribing to The Morning Jolt.