Ken Cuccinelli

Credentials

Background

Ken Cuccinelli is the Director of the Regulatory Action Center at the FreedomWorks Foundation, and former Attorney General of Virginia. While working as Attorney General, his FreedomWorks profile celebrates, Cuccinelli “actively defended the Commonwealth against federal government overreach” which included filing lawsuits against Obamacare and fighting against the EPA.⁴

Cuccinelli holds J.D. and M.A. degrees from George Mason University. Cuccinelli successfully ran to become a Virginia State Senator for the 37th District in 2002 and was re-elected in 2003. He served a third term in 2007 before being elected Virginia Attorney General in 2009.⁵

He later ran an unsuccessful bid as the Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia in 2013. While in public office, Cuccinelli was “a strong conservative advocate for property rights, lower taxes, less government spending, the Second Amendment, and the pro‐life movement.”⁶

FreedomWorks formed in 2004 as a merger between Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and Empower America. FreedomWorks and its CSE predecessor have received as much as $12.3 million in Koch funding from 1986 to 2002.⁷

Cuccinelli’s father, also named Ken Cuccinelli, was formerly the chief operating officer of CNG Energy and also worked in marketing for the American Gas Association.⁸ ⁹

Cuccinelli is a former ALEC member, and has reportedly worked with ALEC member Dominion Resources to oppose Virginia’s clean energy program. Dominion also gave Cuccinelli nearly $100,000 over the years to run for various political positions.¹⁰

Stance on Climate Change

April 2010

“The Attorney General’s office is a very reactive office. […] We wouldn’t be suing the EPA if the EPA did not abandon all semblance of science and law to put out its endangerment finding on the CO2. Now, let’s make them all happy just for a moment and everybody just hold your breath,” Cuccinelli said at a Powhatan Taxpayers’ Alliance tea party event. ¹¹

February 2010

In a news conference, Cuccinelli said the UN global warming report was based on “unreliable, unverifiable and doctored” information.¹²

On Abortion

In 2009, Cuccinelli called himself the “the most aggressive pro-life leader in the Virginia senate.” He co-sponsored a “personhood amendment” that would not only ban abortion, but also had the potential to prohibit common methods of birth control, The Washington Post reported.¹³ ¹⁴

Mother Jones reported in 2013 that Cuccinelli had given a total of $4,038 to two crisis pregnancy centers and one affiliated group from 2008 to 2012. “Abortion rights advocates have criticized crisis pregnancy centers for showing women graphic simulations of abortions, providing medical misinformation, and opening offices near abortion providers in the hopes that women will confuse the two,” Mother Jones reported.¹⁵

In 2012, Cuccinelli also refused to certify regulations from the Virginia Board of Health that would allow existing abortion clinics to remain open, Mother Jones reported. Cucinelli’s actions prompted protests in the state, including the formation of a new group titled “CoochWatch.” “The Cooch has been keeping an eye on your vagina, so now we’re going to keep an eye on him,” the group’s co-founder Stephanie Arnold told Mother Jones.¹⁶ ¹⁷

Cuccinelli has been vocal on his views on abortion in the past:

“Really, given that God does judge nations, it’s amazing that abortion has run as far and foully as it has, without what I would consider to be a greater imposition of judgment on this country,” Cuccinelli said during a speech at the 2012 Christian Life Summit.¹⁸

On Homosexuality

“The militant homosexual agenda generally threatens the stability of our families and our society. I want a resolution to say we want to keep things the way they are in Virginia” — Ken Cuccinelli¹⁹

In addition to vocally expressing his views opposing homosexuality, Cuccinelli filed a petition in 2013 to reconsider the overturn of Virginia’s sodomoy laws which criminalizes consensual, private relations with up to five years in prison and a $2500 fine. Judges had ruled that a section of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute that outlaws sodomy between consenting adults, gay or straight was unconstitutional. A representative from Cuccinelli’s office filed a petition on his behalf on March 26, 2013, requesting an en banc hearing before the judges to reconsider the earlier ruling.²⁰

March 2010

“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” Cuccinelli said in a letter to Virginia public colleges and universities.²¹

October 26, 2009

“My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. … They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society,” Cuccinelli said, as reported by The Virginian-Pilot.²²

February 5, 2008

Cuccinelli spoke at a meeting of the Family Foundation, “the lobby that fights in Richmond against abortion, no-fault divorce, embryonic stem cell research and pornography,” the Washington Post reported.²³

“When you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul,” Cuccinelli said.

Campaign Finance

FollowTheMoney.org and the The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) have tracked donors to Cuccinelli’s campaigns. Donors have included energy companies like Dominion Energy, ExxonMobil, Alpha Natural Resources, Murray Energy, and Consol Energy; tobacco companies such as Altria, US Tobacco, and Reynolds American; as well as individual contributions from noted climate change deniers like Charles Battig and C. Boyden Gray.

Partial list of notable funders below, via FollowTheMoney. View the attached spreadsheet for a more complete list of Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign finances (.xlsx).²⁴

Industry & Contributor	Total
Mining	$346,544
ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES	$132,500
CONSOL ENERGY	$114,544
CONTRAN CORP	$1,000
MURRAY ENERGY CORP	$80,000
VIRGINIA COAL ASSOCIATION	$16,000
VIRGINIA URANIUM	$2,500
Tobacco companies & tobacco product sales	$123,897
ALTRIA	$99,547
BAILEYS CIGARETTES	$5,000
CIGAR ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA	$1,000
DUDLEY III, O WITCHER	$150
REYNOLDS AMERICAN	$1,700
S & M BRANDS	$3,500
UNIVERSAL LEAF TOBACCO	$13,000
Miscellaneous Energy	$96,500
DOMINION	$96,500
Chemical & Related Manufacturing	$92,250
KOCH INDUSTRIES	$42,250
KOCH, DAVID HAMILTON	$50,000
Christian Conservative	$58,750
CAMPAIGN FOR WORKING FAMILIES	$25,500
FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL	$20,250
ILLINOIS FAMILY INSTITUTE	$8,000
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE	$5,000
Telecom Services & Equipment	$54,050
AT&T	$2,500
COMCAST	$6,000
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS	$27,300
VIRGINIA CABLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION	$18,250
Securities & Investment	$52,000
FRIESS, FOSTER STEPHEN	$52,000
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$50,340
GRAY, C BOYDEN	$11,000
HUNTON ANDREWS KURTH	$21,770
TROUTMAN SANDERS	$17,570
Oil & Gas	$44,450
APPALACHIAN ENERGY INC	$1,250
DEVON ENERGY	$25,000
EXXON MOBIL	$1,200
VIRGINIA GASOLINE MARKETERS COUNCIL	$1,000
VIRGINIA NATURAL GAS	$7,500
VIRGINIA OIL & GAS ASSOCIATION	$8,500
Gun Control	$36,330
GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA	$17,255
NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION	$16,500
OHIO GUN COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION	$1,000
PRATT, LAWRENCE D	$1,475
PRATT, MR LAWRENCE D	$100
Electric Utilities	$28,750
ALLEGHENY ENERGY	$2,500
AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER / AEP	$11,500
APPALACHIAN POWER	$500
COLUMBIA GAS	$500
NISOURCE INC	$7,000
NORTHERN VIRGINIA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE	$250
OLD DOMINION ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE	$2,500
VIRGINIA RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES ASSOCIATION	$1,000
WASHINGTON GAS LIGHT CO	$3,000
Railroads	$27,050
CSX TRANSPORTATION	$750
NORFOLK SOUTHERN	$26,300
Automotive	$23,515
DOMINION AUTO GROUP	$10,292
VIRGINIA AUTO DEALERS ASSOCIATION	$13,224
Uncoded	$22,375
AT MASSEY COAL CO	$10,000
BATTIG, MR CHARLES	$825
BATTIG, MR CHARLES G	$200
BATTIG, MR. CHARLES GUIDO	$350
BLACK AMERICAS	$2,250
CNX GAS CORPORATION	$750
DIVERSIFIED RESOURCES INC	$5,000
DUNLOP, BECKY L NORTON	$1,250
KOCH, DAVID	$250
NORTHERN VIRGINIA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE	$1,000
NORTON DUNLOP, BECKY L	$500
Pharmaceuticals & Health Products	$14,500
NOVARTIS CORP	$1,000
PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH & MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA / PHRMA	$13,500
Commercial Banks	$11,100
BANK OF AMERICA	$5,750
VIRGINIA BANKERS ASSOCIATION	$5,350
Elderly/Social Security	$9,900
60 PLUS ASSOCIATION	$9,900
Anti-Labor Groups	$8,779
LAJEUNESSE JR, RAYMOND J	$500
NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK CMTE	$8,279
Special Trade Contractors	$5,000
BAY ELECTRIC	$5,000
Conservative Policy Organization	$4,000
CLUB FOR GROWTH	$4,000
Abortion Policy	$4,000
ABRAHAM, JANE HERSHEY	$2,000
KEMP JR, BRUCE F	$600
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COALITION FOR LIFE	$1,400
Agricultural Services & Products	$3,500
MONSANTO	$3,500
Steel	$3,500
BANKER STEEL	$2,500
US STEEL CORP	$1,000
Minority & Disability Groups	$2,000
BLACK AMERICAS PAC	$2,000
Nuclear Energy	$1,000
AREVA INC	$1,000
Grand Total	$1,124,080

As Greenpeace’s PolluterWatch reported in 2013, Hunton Williams is a “corporate lobbying firm that runs the coal front group Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG) to interfere with EPA pollution controls.” Several of the groups funding Cuccinelli’s campaigns including Dominion Resources, American Electric Power, Koch Industries, Altria, and the NRA are also members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).²⁵

“Dirty energy interests like Dominion, AEP, Duke Energy, Peabody and others are using their political allies and groups like ALEC alike to attack renewable energy across the board, in coordination with a familiar public relations play that victimizes dirty coal operations and mocks all forms of clean energy,” Greenpeace reported.

Key Quotes

August 14, 2017

Cuccinelli told a CNN reporter to “shut up” on national television while speaking on a CNN panel regarding the violence in Charlottesville:²⁶

Cuccinelli: “My point of disagreement is that, that was an excuse to bring these groups together. The local blogger who got the permit to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee Statue then blew this up.”

Symone D. Sanders: “And now someone’s dead.”

Cuccinelli: “That was an excuse. Look at even how they got the permit. And can I finish Simone? Will you just shut up for a minute and let me finish?”

Sanders: “Pardon me, sir. You don’t get to tell me to shut up on national television.”

July 26, 2015

Speaking on a CNN panel, Cuccinelli talked about “Black Lives Matter” and suggested that the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag should be changed to “BlackLivesMatterToo.” View the CNN transcript here (video below):²⁷ ²⁸

Jake Tapper: “And Ken, talk to me about why it is that some people – I’m not saying you feel this way. Why are some people out there resentful of the Black Lives Matter hash tag?”

Cuccinelli: “I think the way Bakari said it is actually very valuable, adding ‘too,’ t-o-o at the end puts it in a context that makes sense. “

Tapper: “But it’s implicit though.”

Cuccinelli: “Well, you may say that, and there’s plenty of reason to understand that, but I don’t think every American hears it that way. They hear here we are, yes, we have this political motivation that we’re separating out this one category of Americans and saying they matter more than everybody else. That’s actually what a lot of –” (Emphasis added)

Tapper: “No. We’re saying – we’re saying, stop killing us. We’re saying my life matters.”²⁹

Key Deeds

August 7, 2018

Cuccinelli spoke at the Heartland Institute‘s “America First Energy Conference” (AFEC 2018) in New Orleans, Louisiana.³⁰

“The purpose of this event is to promote and expand energy freedom in the United States, as outlined in President Donald Trump’s bold America First Energy Plan, a proposal first released during the 2016 presidential campaign. The president’s plan marks a decisive change in direction from the Obama administration’s ‘war on fossil fuels’ and focus on the theory of catastrophic man-caused climate change,” the conference description reads.³¹

He spoke on a panel titled “Reigning in the Regulators.”³²

October 2013

Virginia’s inspector general found that a deputy in Ken Cuccinelli’s office had improperly collaborated with energy companies in a legal dispute regarding natural gas royalties in southwest Virginia, The Washington Post reported. The inspector found that Cuccinelli’s assistant attorney general, Sharon Pigeon, had “inappropriately” used state resources to help energy companies in a legal disagreement between landowners and coal companies.³³

“The Virginia Inspector General confirmed today what Virginians have found troubling for months — that Ken Cuccinelli’s office had stepped over the line and improperly used taxpayer funds to advise out-of-state energy companies trying to avoid paying Southwest Virginia landowners mining royalties that are rightfully theirs,” McAuliffe spokesman Josh Schwerin said in a written statement.³⁴

Brian Gottstein, a spokesman for the attorney’s general office, said that Cuccinelli “had no prior knowledge” of the content of emails sent to the energy companies.³⁵

Democratic Senator Phillip P. Puckett asked the state inspector’s general office to conduct the investigation. He said he was troubled because Consol Energy, one of the companies involved, had also contributed more than $111,000 to Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign.³⁶

Consol had also given $32,000 to Cuccinelli’s campaign for attorney general. A federal judge called the attorney general’s office’s actions “shocking” in an 85-page decision.³⁷ ³⁸

August 30, 2010

Cuccinelli was rebuffed by a state Circuit Court judge who ruled Cuccinelli’s subpoena against the University of Virginia and climate scientist Michael Mann lacked an “objective basis” and that Cuccinelli’s subpoena failed to include a “reason to believe” that Mann violated Virginia fraud statutes by receiving research grants from the state to study climate change.³⁹

“What the Attorney General suspects that Dr. Mann did that was false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth is simply not stated,” Judge Peatross wrote in his ruling.⁴⁰

May 4, 2010

While Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli targeted Michael Mann, a former climate researcher and professor at the University of Virginia, with a request for a broad range of documents.⁴¹

“I think he’s simply trying to smear me as part of a larger campaign to discredit my science,” said Mann ⁴²

The Washington Post reported Rachel Levinson, senior counsel with the American Association of University Professors, said Cuccinelli’s request had “echoes of McCarthyism.”⁴³

“It would be incredibly chilling to anyone else practicing in either the same area or in any politically sensitive area,” she said.⁴⁴

The Washington Post described the subpoena as an “anti-climate science crusade.” It has also been described as a “witch hunt” designed to “intimidate and suppress.” The effort was put down once by the supreme court, but Cuccinelli tried again.⁴⁵ ⁴⁶

View video of Cuccinelli discussing the probe below:⁴⁷

Both The Washington Post and Nature published editorials criticizing Cuccinelli’s “witch hunt” of professor Michael Mann.⁴⁸ ⁴⁹

“Given the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing, it’s hard to see Cuccinelli’s subpoena — and similar threats of legal action against climate scientists in a February report by climate-change denier Senator James Inhofe (Republican, Oklahoma) — as anything more than an ideologically motivated inquisition that harasses and intimidates climate scientists,” the Nature editorial read.⁵⁰

April 1, 2010

Cuccinelli sued the EPA to challenge fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, The Washington Post reported.⁵¹

March 2010

Ken Cuccinelli wrote a letter to Virginia public colleges and universities urging them to remove policies that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.⁵²

“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification, as a protected c lass within its non-discrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” the letter read.⁵³

After uproar on college campuses, Cuccinelli stood by his statements. “What I said in my March 4 letter was accurate advice under Virginia law, and it still stands,” Cuccinelli said in brief to reporters on an unrelated issue. He said universities “don’t have any more authority than the General Assembly gives them, which is a similar position as the localities. And until the General Assembly gives them more authority, they’re quarantined by what they’ve got.”⁵⁴

February 17, 2010

While Attorney General of Virginia, Cuccinelli petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases under the clean air act. He cited documents improperly obtained and released from the Clime Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (so-called “Climategate”) as supposed evidence to question global warming data. Multiple independent investigations exonerated the scientists involved in that event of any wrongdoing.⁵⁵

“There are significant issues with the EPA basing much of its Endangerment Finding on IPCC reports,” Cuccinelli claimed. “The IPCC reports were produced without regard to U.S. data standards and thus lack the transparency and data quality standards that the EPA should be demanding in the reports it bases it’s Endangerment Findings on. The EPA was driven by political concerns and used questionable scientific reports to reach an outcome driven by politics. The EPA findings of endangerment of health and welfare are hypocritical as they failed to consider and properly weigh the offsetting harms to the health and welfare that will flow from their economically destructive regulation. The EPA needs to stop playing politics with its regulations. The EPA’s Endangerment finding will harm the Commonwealth of Virginia.⁵⁶

“We cannot allow unelected bureaucrats with political agendas to use falsified data to regulate American industry and drive our economy into the ground.”⁵⁷