Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) hosted a “Constitution Day” rally with right-wing shock jock Mark Levin on Tuesday, in support of his campaign to be Virginia’s next governor. But his campaign struggled to respond when a prominent Republican district chairman kicked off the rally with an anti-Semitic joke.
Cuccinelli campaign strategist Chris LaCivita, who handled media strategy for the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, tried to distance the campaign from its supporter. “I don’t even know who the guy is,” he told the Washington Post. “It’s wholly inappropriate and not connected to the campaign. And it’s not reflective of Ken Cuccinelli.”
But in May, an activist tweeted a photo of Whitbeck, giving one of the nomination speeches for Cuccinelli at the state Republican convention. Whitbeck’s own Twitter feed and the 10th District Committee’s Facebook page show him with Cuccinelli at numerous campaign events. And, as Ben Tribbett noted on his Not Larry Sabato blog, Cuccinelli’s political director worked closely with Whitbeck to win the 10th district committee elections in 2012 in order to take over the Republican State Central Committee — a key component of his strategy to change the nomination process in Cuccinelli’s favor.
via ThinkProgress and BlueVirginia
