McAuliffe Misfires In Attack On Ken Cuccinelli
By: Michael Pope // WAMU-FM radio // July 23, 2013
In Virginia, Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe is facing new criticism after a debate last weekend with Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Everybody expected the scandal involving undisclosed gifts from a wealthy Virginia businessman to Gov. Bob McDonnell and other officials to play a prominent role in the first debate between Cuccinelli and McAuliffe, but few people expected McAuliffe to characterize a recent report from Richmond commonwealth’s attorney Michael Herring as saying that the Cuccinelli should have been prosecuted because, well, that didn’t happen.
“These things happen from time to time in politics,” says Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “Last year, you may recall, Mitt Romney made a similar misstep when he talked about when Obama did and didn’t use the word ‘terrorism’ in the debate with Candy Crowley.”
