The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a memo Wednesday morning arguing that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s (R) loss in the Virginia governor’s race was a referendum on House Republicans’ conservative agenda.
The memo argued that the hard right policies Cuccinelli pushed on the campaign trail —and that House Republicans support— are weighing down the Republican party. According to the memo:
When Ken Cuccinelli lost in the swing state of Virginia last night, House Republicans lost a lot of sleep. At the same time, Chris Christie’s victory gave them no comfort, as Christie used House Republicans as a foil, excoriating Speaker Boehner for their reckless shutdown and Hurricane Sandy aid delays. Taken together, the signs point to Congressional Republicans and their agenda being the common weight around the party’s ankles – and there’s no question that Congressional Republicans are part of the Cuccinelli wing of the party.
In the swing state of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli ran on a radical platform of restricting women’s rights, catering to the Tea Party or forcing the wrong budget priorities on voters. If that agenda sounds eerily familiar to Congress-watchers, it’s because House Republicans have echoed the Cuccinelli plan for years, whether it was opposing the Violence Against Women Act, pushing the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan economic plan or opposing bipartisan immigration reform. (See the attached addendum for just how closely House Republicans’ agenda mirrors Cuccinelli’s agenda.)
One year before the 2014 midterm elections, Americans have now seen the most tangible proof that swing voters will reject the Congressional Republican agenda of recklessness and dysfunction that hurts families’ wallets. As House Republicans spend the next 12 months ignoring Tuesday’s results and following Ted Cruz into the brink, Americans will continue to give them record-low approval numbers for their out-of-touch recklessness.
The memo goes on to say that “House Republicans and Ken Cuccinelli’s agenda are one and the same, and swing voters unequivocally rejected that agenda on Tuesday.”
“From attacking women’s rights to make their own health care decisions and opposition to immigration reform to an obsessive focus on undermining health care reform and rejection of gay Americans’ full equality, Ken Cuccinelli’s agenda has been in lockstep with that of House Republicans,” the memo said. “The Republicans in this Congress who will be on the ballot next year are not Chris Christie Republicans – the only Republican to survive Tuesday’s trouncing. They were elected by and are beholden to the Tea Party.”
The memo comes a day after Democrat Terry McAuliffe eked out a slim victory over Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor’s race and former state Sen. Bradley Byrne (R) defeated tea party-backed conservative activist Dean Young in a Republican runoff for Alabama’s first congressional district. The results were read as a victory over the tea party and conservative Republicans.
Read the memo below:
