"What you're seeing on the national stage is a pattern very similar to his time in Virginia politics," said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. "His strategy was to take very conservative legal positions and wait and see if the courts agreed with him," Farnsworth said. "And while his track record was not particularly good, it built him a base of support among Republican conservatives and helped make him a national figure on Fox News."

With Tactics Honed on Climate Change, Ken Cuccinelli Attracts New Controversy at Homeland Security (Inside Climate News)