Cuccinelli's Convention Victory

Senator Cuccinelli is now the Attorney General nominee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He was elected with 57% of the vote at the convention last Saturday.

This was a moment of triumph for the conservative wing of the RPV. We saw the Virginia's conservative champion in the state senate nominated to run for state wide office. Another thing we saw was the social conservatives and the liberty Caucus/Ron Paul supporters unite to give Ken the nomination. We united behind Ken not because we wanted someone who could get elected in November (though he will) or someone who won't offend people. We united behind Ken because he has spent his career articulating and fighting for the things we hold dear.

Another important aspect in this race is the part homeschoolers played in this nomination contest. Lynn Mitchell summarized it well on her blog.

To say the Virginia home school community was on fire for Ken Cuccinelli is an understatement. Parents worked for months collecting signatures on petitions, hosting meet-and-greets, spreading the word, and signing up as delegates to the RPV Convention.

The majority of home schooling families believe in less government, more individual responsibility, less taxes, responsible spending, and individual liberties. When they find a candidate who has those same beliefs -- and unequivocally states them -- they will back him.

As a homeschool dad Ken worked hard to use homeschoolers in his campaign. While John Brownlee had "Homeschoolers for Brownlee" signs, if you lined up all the homeschoolers who were their for Brownlee and all the homeschoolers supporting Ken it wouldn't even be a contest.

Since I haven't found a good video of what heppened right before Ken's convention speech, I would like to take a moment and describe it. After John Brownlee left the stage, the convention lights were dimmed. At that moment "Don't Tread on Me" flags that were passed out during Brownlee's speech started waving all across the convention. There were 200 large flags and thousand of small ones. The convention hall turned into a sea of yellow. At the same time pictures of the flag were placed on the main screens and an audio montage ofnews clips about the GM takeover, bailout, and DHS homeland terrorist report was played. When the montage was over, the lights came back on, Ken was at the podium, and the convention hall was electric.

If you would like to rehear Ken's speech here it is below. I hope you will join us in working hard to get the entire ticket as well as our candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates elected this November.


Ken Cuccinelli's convention speech.


Ken's acceptance speech.

Republican Advance Straw Poll Results: Cuccinelli Wins

According to Hampton Roads GOP, Ken Cuccinelli won the Republican Advance Attorney General straw poll.

***This is a HamptonRoadsGOP.com exclusive*** Cuccinelli wins the RPV Advance Strawpoll. The results are as follows: Cuccinelli, 47% Brownlee, 38% Foster, 15%.

This is now the second major grassroots victory by the Cuccinelli campaign in a week.

This was also a major victory because the deck was set against Cuccinelli in the straw poll. In the 2007 Republican Advance straw poll, Ron Paul traveled en masse to the Republican Advance to make sure Ron Paul won the poll, and they were successful.

This year John Brownlee tried to win the straw poll by bussing people in to the Advance, and paying for peoples admission to the event. In his live blog of the AG debate earlier today, Shaun Kenney estimated that John Bownlee had bussed in 200 people, and that roughly another 300 people were at the advance.

If Shaun's ballpark estimates are roughly accurate this makes Cuccinelli's victory even more impressive. Brownllee bussed in 2/5ths of the Advance attendees and received roughly 2/5ths of the vote in the straw poll. Assuming the people Brownlee bussed in voted for Brownlee, this means Brownlee had very little support among people who went to the Advance with an open mind on the race.

No matter what trying to buy a strawpoll and failing has to be an embarrasment for any campaign.

Cuccinelli had now won the two biggest tests of grassroots strength in this AG nomination contest. This bodes very well for him heading into the delegate elections starting up in January.

::UPDATE:: For final results from bloggers who were at the advance, check out Jason Kenney, and SWAC Girl.