Mark Herring: “Obenshain and Bell are Cuccinelli Clones”

From the Mark Herring for AG campaign:

Think Cuccinelli is Outside the Mainstream of Virginia? Obenshain and Bell are Cuccinelli Clones
Herring The Only AG Candidate With A Record Of Working To Get Things Done In Virginia

Leesburg – A February 25 story in Politico highlighted the difficulty extreme right-wing Attorney General and Republican candidate for Governor Ken Cuccinelli is having attracting support from mainstream business leaders.

While the Cuccinelli campaign is trying to pretend like mainstream support doesn’t matter in purple Virginia, the two Republicans running for Attorney General are trying to prove they are more like Cuccinelli than the other.

During Mark Obenshain’s press conference announcing he was running for Attorney General, he said he believes that the “attorney general’s done a great job.”

If that weren’t enough, Obenshain bragged about the old days serving in the State Senate with Ken Cuccinelli. The two right-wing conservatives were seatmates and in 2004 “literally were not allowed to go to Republican caucus meetings” because they were trying to defeat then-Governor Mark Warner’s bipartisan budget reforms.

In his announcement press conference, Rob Bell praised Cuccinelli. Reports from the announcement said he cozied up to Ken Cuccinelli several times and said he would continue to fight Cuccinelli’s ideological battles. Bell said at the press conference, “I hope I would have the same approach…”

“Ken Cuccinelli is not the only out-of-the-mainstream candidate running statewide this year,” Senator Mark Herring (Loudoun and Fairfax Counties) said. “Mark Obenshain and Rob Bell are competing to see who can be the next Cuccinelli.

“That’s not what Virginians want. They want a candidate who will take the politics out of the Attorney General’s office. That’s the type of Attorney General I’ll be,” Herring added.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why moderate business leaders are running away from Cuccinelli this week:

• Cuccinelli continues to be obsessed with inserting himself in women’s health care decisions.
• Cuccinelli opposed Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan.

Now let’s take a look at the Rob Bell and Mark Obenshain’s voting records:

• Both Bell and Obenshain supported the transvaginal ultrasound bill and opposed the repeal of those bills during the General Assembly session. They also supported Cuccinelli imposing harsh new restrictions on women’s health facilities and have extreme records when it comes to women’s health care.
• Both Bell and Obenshain opposed Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan.