Its no great secret that Bob McDonnell would prefer to have John Brownlee on the ticket in November than Ken Cuccinelli, and so do many others. A recent quote from Loudoun Insider over at Too Conservative shares seems to be representative of the feelings many Brownlee supporters have. Its the idea that Ken Cuccinelli will bring the ticket down as a whole.

Here is the post from Loudoun Insider

“Open your eyes and be realistic.  Cuccinelli not only loses us the AG slot, he likely brings down McDonnell and Bolling with him.  It will be far far too easy for the opposition to paint the ticket as a bunch of out of touch social conservatives intent on invading your bedrooms.  Taliban Bob will be back along with Ayatollah Cuccinelli.” (bolding added )

Its a powerful sentiment and may give the other side some ammunition. But will KC actually drag down the ticket if the nominee?

I am going to have to say no, and it has nothing to do with candidate preference. Its has been proven in  political science that candidate up ticket in state wide elections has the ability to effect the performance down ticket (rare exceptions do happen, such as Mark Warner’s big margin of victory when compared to President Obama’s).

We can look at the results of the 2005 gubernatorial election results to see what happens. Mr Kilgore managed to run such a awful campaign it cost him a 6 points loss in that election.

But what happened down ticket? Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell both won, but won by less than a full percent in both instances. Were they weak terrible candidates or did they suffer from a up ticket weight?

Democrats love to point out that McDonnell and Bolling barely won in 2005, and that they are not as strong because of it. The fact they held off the “Kilgore effect” and still pulled it out really says something of the campaigners they are. Byrne and Deeds should be ashamed they couldnt ride the Kaine wave.

But Bolling and McDonnell should have helped make it closer for Kilgore in accordance to the logic espoused by certain Brownlee supporters. At the end of the day, McDonnell’s performance in the general will be what sways voters to vote republican down ticket.

You can make the argument that KC is too conservative too win state wide, but I do believe the idea he will hold McDonnell down is a little disingenuous.

With that said. I am one of the few authors left on the blogosphere who is still choosing to remain neutral in this AG race, and It will take me a while before I fully endorse a candidate. But, I will be addressing some of the major arguments of all the campaigns over the next few weeks until I endorse somebody.