Cuccinelli wastes your taxpayer dollars

March 12, 2012

The Washington Post editorializes, "If Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) needs examples of official waste and abuse as he runs for governor, he could cite the harassment that he conducted against climate scientist Michael E. Mann, a costly episode of government overreach that is finally over. This month, after nearly two years of legal proceedings, the Virginia Supreme Court halted the attorney general's investigation of Mr. Mann, who used to teach at the University of Virginia. Twisting a law designed to root out embezzlement of state funds and the like, the attorney general had demanded oceans of documents -- including Mr. Mann's e-mail correspondence -- from U-Va."

Progressive Point: Virginia's Attorney General is duty bound to represent the best interests of the people of Virginia. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has used the office to pursue an ideological crusade. Rather than focus on consumer protection and enforcing the laws of the Commonwealth, Cuccinelli has spent two years relentlessly pursuing a frivolous investigation while wasting taxpayer dollars. Cuccinelli's legally baseless fishing expedition has cost the University of Virginia at least $600,000 at a time when they are searching for funds to educate Virginia's future leaders.

Across the Commonwealth, Virginians are tightening their belts and making difficult financial choices. Attorney General Cuccinelli should be focusing his office's resources on the real problems facing Virginia, not playing political games. Wasting taxpayer dollars on ideological pursuits is not the kind of leadership Virginia needs.

Get the Facts:

• "The university had to raise nearly $600,000 for legal fees -- money the cash-strapped university should have been able to use for something productive. On top of that are the public resources of the attorney general's office that Mr. Cuccinelli wasted." (Washington Post, March 11, 2012)


• "Cuccinelli, by his words and deeds, is putting himself and his opinions above thousands of conscientious Virginians who are trying to maintain our wonderful streams, forests, oceans, and summer days for our children and grandchildren -- and that's elitist. You're familiar with the background -- a UVA professor named Michael Mann believes human activity is driving global warming. Ken Cuccinelli does not -- or, at least, the big donors, national extremists, and Tea Partyers who he likes to cater to don't. So Cuccinelli decided that because Professor Mann (an employee of a public university) was a beneficiary of taxpayer dollars, that his research (which Cuccinelli disagreed with) was 'fraudulent' -- and that the Attorney General's office could subpoena Mann's emails and records to prove the fraud. It was a breathtaking overreach, a plain abuse of power." (New Dominion Project, March 12, 2012)

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