Cuccinelli spends time with his wife and seven children at their home in Prince William County.


U-Va. hand over documents connected to a former professor’s work on climate change, to determine whether the pro- fessor used false information to obtain taxpayer-funded research grants. At the same time, Cuccinelli has


offended some Second Amendment absolutists and military families for positions he has taken in cases related to gun rights and protests at military funerals. Allies on some issues are left upset with his stances on others. “I don’t like the man’s politics at all,” Pittas says. Cuccinelli interprets liberally the


AG’s basic job, which is to be managing partner of a 250-lawyer firm, charged with representing state agencies and pursuing such crimes as money launder- ing. He’ll wade into any matter — and is free to do so — if he perceives a threat to Virginia law or Virginians’ constitutional rights. Some see calculation in Cuccinel- li’s selection of targets for action. “Cuccinelli’s model is always to try


to figure out a block of people who are against something — health care, fix- ing climate change, President Obama, taxes, gay people — then show in pub- lic life that he will be a leader in fighting


these things, these people, these rights,” says Stephen Shannon, the former Democratic state delegate from Fairfax County whom Cuccinelli defeated in the race for attorney general. To his supporters, Cuccinelli is that


rarest of things, a Mr. Smith for the right wing. “Ken is certainly a boat-rocker,” says Richard Viguerie, a Virginia-based patriarch of the national conservative movement and a mentor to Cuccinel- li. “We are looking for people who will shake up the establishment, including the Republican establishment.” In person, Cuccinelli’s charged pub-


lic persona is softened, if not subverted, by a skewed sense of humor — he’s a “Monty Python” aficionado — and a cer- tain goofy maladroitness. To build a little office spirit this past


spring, he designed a lapel pin for his staff. He picked a historic version of the Virginia state seal on which the goddess Virtus happens to have both breasts covered, unlike on the current official seal. The alternative Virtus, he joked in a staff meeting, would be more “virtu- ous.” The commonwealth was treated to a long weekend of “boob” jokes in blogs


16 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | AUGUST 1, 2010


and newspaper columns until Cuccinel- li, uncharacteristically, surrendered and abandoned the pin. The episode was classic Cuccinelli.


Despite his aggressive political stance, “he has an odd way of not taking him- self too seriously,” says Scott Surovell, a Democratic member of the House of Delegates from Fairfax County.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152