Virginia: Pro-Life Ken Cuccinelli Leads Pro-Abortion Terry McAuliffe

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 17, 2013   |   2:45PM   |   Richmond, VA

The election is months away and many voters are not yet paying attention, but the pro-life candidate in the race for governor of Virginia hold a lead, according to a new poll.

Republican Ken Cuccinelli leads Democrat Terry McAuliffe (37%-31%), but more than one-fourth (27%) of registered voters in Virginia remain undecided in the 2013 gubernatorial election, according to The Roanoke College Poll. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis claimed 5 percent of respondents.

The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 525 registered voters in Virginia between July 8 and July 14 and has a margin of error of +4.3 percent.

From the new survey:

The major party candidates are becoming more familiar to Virginians, and views are somewhat more positive, with each now seen more favorably than unfavorably. A plurality of Virginia registered voters did not know enough about McAuliffe (45%) to have an opinion about him, and 34 percent don’t have an opinion of Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli has improved his favorable/unfavorable split (33 %/26%), compared with the April Roanoke College Poll, while McAuliffe has more than doubled his favorable views (24%/20%).

A plurality of respondents (47%) don’t know enough about Cuccinelli to gauge his ideology, while 23 percent thought he was too conservative for Virginia and 26 percent thought he was about right. Nearly two-thirds (64%) were not familiar with McAuliffe’s ideology; 15 percent see him as too liberal and 17 percent thought his ideology was about right. All of those figures are within the margin of error from the April Roanoke College Poll. When those respondents who were “leaning” toward a candidate were included in the analysis, Cuccinelli led McAuliffe (39%-33%), Sarvis stayed steady at 5 percent, and the number of undecided voters dropped to 23 percent. Sarvis seems to draw about equally from both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli, but that number is very small. The sources of support for each candidate follow what we would expect. That said, Independents were twice as likely to be undecided as either Republicans or Democrats. Moderates and conservatives were twice as likely to be undecided as liberals. Cuccinelli led among Independents (33%-21%), and McAuliffe led among moderates (40%-29%).

The most important issues in the campaign were unemployment (24%) and the economy (20%). The only other issues to be named by more than 5 percent of the registered voters were transportation (12%) and education (8%). It is not surprising, then, that a majority of respondents (61%) said a candidate’s economic positions were more important in determining their vote than positions on social issues (17%).

Earlier this year, the Susan B. Anthony List announced its endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli for Governor of Virginia!

In announcing the endorsement, SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said:

“Ken Cuccinelli’s record of fighting exploitation of the most vulnerable is not just a position that he takes, it is clearly an extension of who he is. Ken’s leadership in defending women against violence on campus and in fighting human trafficking in Virginia is entirely consistent with his stance in favor of protecting the innocent unborn.”

Dannenfelser continued:

“Like the vast majority of Virginians, we want abortion to be reduced, become rare, and ultimately become a thing of the past. Last year a handful of radical politicians, spurred by the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, abandoned the Democrats’ 15-year commitment to making abortion rare. They want to expand it, protect it up to the moment of childbirth, allow it for sex selection, and send the bill for it to taxpayers, business men and women, and even churches.  That Planned Parenthood, which profits from a record number of abortions each year, would want this is clear enough.  It’s not at all clear why Terry McAuliffe, who has authorized Planned Parenthood’s baseless smears on Ken Cuccinelli, would associate himself with such a radical and greed-driven agenda.”

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Ken Cuccinelli’s leadership in defending the unborn, defending women against violence on campus and in fighting human trafficking in Virginia, on the other hand, is a mainstream agenda that all women in Virginia can support.

As a student at the University of Virginia, Ken helped establish the student-led group, Sexual Assault Facts and Education (SAFE) after hearing a fellow student being attacked. Ken helped organize the successful student protests that led to the university employing a full time sexual assault education coordinator.

Later, while serving in the Virginia General Assembly, Cuccinelli supported multiple bills dealing with human trafficking. He became a leader on this issue and was appointed to the Human Trafficking Commission which worked to develop and implement a plan for the prevention of human trafficking in Virginia.

Currently serving as Attorney General, Cuccinelli’s office works to protect victims of domestic violence—most often, women—by producing an annual report on the issue and promoting the best practices from other areas of the country that have developed creative responses to domestic and sexual violence. Ken is a husband and father to seven children – five girls and two boys – he is deeply dedicated to his family.

Ken has fought repeatedly against the exploitation of the most vulnerable, including the unborn, and women can be confident he will do the same as governor.