MEMORANDUM

TO: Interested Parties FROM: Danny Kanner, DGA Communications Director DATE: September 24, 2013 Re: Cuccinelli Looking For A Game Changer In Wednesday's Debate Ken Cuccinelli enters Wednesday's Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce debate with Democrat Terry McAuliffe in a precarious position down in the polls, struggling in the race for resources, and crippled by the divisive, radical agenda that has defined his career in public life. Simply put, Cuccinelli faces an impossible task on Wednesday night: fundamentally altering the trajectory of this campaign with one stage-managed performance. I. Polling Across all public opinion polls, Ken Cuccinelli is losing this race to Terry McAuliffe. According to HuffPost's Pollster model, Cuccinelli trails McAuliffe by nearly seven points. That's because, according to the most recent Quinnipiac Poll, he has a negative favorability rating of 17 points more than half of Virginia voters view Cuccinelli unfavorably, while only a third view him favorably. And even with a +5 Republican voter turnout advantage in a poll conducted on behalf of a conservative blog, Cuccinelli "cannot muster a lead" in the race. II. Resources Deceiving general election voters into believing he's anything but an extreme social crusader through television ads has always been at the core of the Cuccinelli strategy. But while independent conservative groups and the Republican Governors Association have attempted to keep his campaign afloat with false negative advertising about Terry McAuliffe, Cuccinelli has largely been abandoned by the mainstream business interests and Republican donors who helped fuel Bob McDonnell's campaign four years ago. Because of the polling deficit, Cuccinelli has also failed to harness the resources of the national conservative grassroots that hail him as a Tea Party hero. Therefore, opportunities like Wednesday's debate where he'll stand face-to-face with his opponent before a statewide audience are critical to his prospects. III. Radical Agenda & Extreme Allies Facing the reality of his lagging poll numbers and the strength of McAuliffe's support, Cuccinelli is coming home to where he's most comfortable - the most extreme, fringe elements of the Republican Party. Last week, he hosted a rally with conservative talk radio host Mark Levin, where the man who nominated him for the Republican nomination for governor told an antiSemitic joke. He's also been campaigning as a joint ticket with his running mate E.W. Jackson, who added to his offensive rhetoric on Sunday when he said that non-Christians are engaged in

"some sort of false religion." It makes sense that Cuccinelli is returning to his base as this race has gotten more difficult these are his career-long allies based on their shared ideological agenda. Ken Cuccinelli is back on his heels. Terry McAuliffe has run a campaign based on mainstream solutions to the Commonwealth's economic challenges and will continue to discuss those issues on Wednesday night. But Cuccinelli faces a herculean task that will prove impossible to achieve, no matter his flailing attempts to hide his radical agenda.

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