Cuccinelli’s stance on Obamacare was a liability, McAuliffe pollster says

[ProSense]

Cuccinelli’s stance on Obamacare was a liability, McAuliffe pollster says

By Greg Sargent

The insta-punditry on the Virginia outcome widely holds that Obamacare was the main reason Ken Cuccinelli came much closer than expected to winning. As Cuccinelli himself put it: “This race came down to the wire because of Obamacare. That message will go out across America.”

But what if Cuccinell’s stance on the health law was actually a liability to him?

That’s what victor Terry McAuliffe’s pollster, Geoff Garin, argued in an interview with me. The McAuliffe campaign tested Cuccinelli’s position and rhetoric on the health law and found it alienated more voters than it attracted...the campaign specifically polled on Cuccinelli’s bragging point as the first attorney general to target the health law, and that it was a loser for him.

“We tested Cuccinelli’s brag that he was the first attorney general to sue to stop Obamacare,” Garin said. “That actually made more voters less likely to support him than more.”

<...>

“A majority disapproved of the Affordable Care Act, but in Virginia, as elsewhere, we found that a lot of these voters want to fix the law,” Garin said. “Cuccinellis’ position on Obamacare actually supported what we were saying about him, which is that he was extreme and supported a national Tea Party agenda.”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/11/06/cuccinellis-stance-on-obamacare-was-a-liability-mcauliffe-pollster-says/

[William769]

1. Kick & recommended.

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. K&R

[FSogol]

4. K & R. n/t