Cuccinelli
Morrisey
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is lending his support to Patrick Morrisey, the GOP candidate for West Virginia attorney general.
Cuccinelli, a conservative Republican, took office in 2010.
Just months after his swearing-in, the Virginia attorney general filed his own lawsuit against President Barack Obama's controversial federal health care law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in Cuccinelli's case that he did not have standing to challenge the law on behalf of the state of Virginia because the State wouldn't be affected by the mandate. Only individual Virginians would be, the court said in overturning a district judge's ruling.
On Saturday, Cuccinelli was expected to appear in Charleston to help Morrisey in his campaign against longtime incumbent and current Attorney General Darrell McGraw.
However, his plane had to turn around due to bad weather, WOWK-TV reported Sunday.
Cuccinelli, who is running for governor in 2013, told the television station in a telephone interview that Morrisey's stance on coal will benefit West Virginia.
"It's what I think is the top issue in the country right now," the Virginia attorney general said. "West Virginia and Virginia are no different and that's opportunity, that's the economy.
"Allowing the American people to choose to use the greatest resource we've got in America to be unleashed and to get these illegal regulations off our back, that's an important role for attorneys general to play and your attorney general has failed to do that," referring to McGraw, who has held the office since 1992.
In a news release last week about Cuccinelli's planned appearance, Morrisey's campaign noted that the Virginia attorney general, unlike McGraw, "has been willing to take on the excessive regulations coming out of the Obama administration."
"We need to elect a new attorney general to protect our freedoms and prevent Obama and his allies from running roughshod over our way of life," Morrisey said.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at jessica@legalnewsline.com.