One of the few electoral contests this year that promises to be both high-profile and somewhat competitive is the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Virginia gubernatorial contest, which looks as if it's going to match nut-sauce social conservative Ken Cuccinelli (R) against soulless political hack Terry McAuliffe (D) in a battle to maximize cynicism about the electoral process.

To my estimation, the charges applied to each candidate fit perfectly. And one of the few fun things that's going on in the Old Dominion is that Virginia Democrats are urging their voters to read Cuccinelli's book, paying special attention to all the nut-sauce social conservative bits, while Virginia Republicans are urging their voters to read McAuliffe's book, paying special attention to all the soulless political hack bits. So no matter what happens, this race will be pretty good for everyone's royalties.

The HuffPost Pollster polling model indicates that the battle between Fear and Loathing has been pretty nip-and-tuck so far this year, with the two candidates essentially tied. The latest result, however, from Public Policy Polling, suggests that Loathing has gained the upper hand, with "McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli by a 5 point margin, 42/37." This pairs well with the most recent Quinnipiac poll of the race, which similarly gave McAuliffe a 5-point lead. (Previously, Cuccinelli was having the better time of it in the polls.)

McAuliffe may have caught himself a bit of break in mid-May, when Virginia Republicans emerged from their state convention having nominated zany conservative pastor E.W. Jackson for lieutenant governor, a move that immediately sent establishment Republicans in the state into a "panic."

As Josh Kraushaar reports Thursday, Jackson's ascension to the ticket is inhibiting Cuccinelli's effort "to downplay his socially conservative background." (Which, by the way, is like Santa Claus trying to "downplay" his associations with reindeer, but never mind.)

The irony, here, for Cuccinelli, is that he's the guy who "engineered the convention process," allowing "single-issue activists" to rule the day, instead of "a wider swath of Republican voters" to dictate the process through a statewide primary vote.

But the most interesting thing about the PPP poll isn't the topline result putting McAuliffe ahead, it's the overall trend that indicates that the more Virginians survey their options, the more they hate them:

PPP's first look at the race for Governor of Virginia since January finds that as voters get to know the candidates better ... more are becoming undecided. That's not the normal trend, but it's also not normal to have an election where voters dislike both candidates five months out.

That's the case here. Terry McAuliffe is not popular, with 29% of voters holding a favorable opinion of him to 33% with a negative one. But we find that Ken Cuccinelli is even more unpopular, with 44% of voters rating him unfavorably to just 32% with a positive opinion.

In other words, it's going to be a bad year, the hardliners say, for the tragic heroes of old VA. Fortunately for everyone, despite the fact that Virginia's transportation infrastructure spending remains a contentious issue statewide, there's still a good chance that there will be several decently maintained highways by which residents may leave the Commonwealth after November.

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It's not uncommon for campaigns to take issue with the results of polls, or to counter by releasing more favorable internal numbers.

But Republican Ken Cuccinelli took a somewhat different tack after the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found him trailing rival Terry McAuliffe by 5 points in the race for Virginia governor: His campaign created its own mock polling firm to deliver more welcome news.

From their satirical press release:

Ken Cuccinelli leads Terry McAuliffe by 12 points in a Virginia statewide poll released today by the newly formed polling firm, Republican Republican Republican (RRR). Cuccinelli Campaign Strategist Chris LaCivita formed RRR last week and has pledged to only conduct surveys on behalf of Republicans ... According to LaCivita, the automated telephone survey of 600 likely Virginia voters had a margin of error of +/- 0.00%. Interestingly, only one individual surveyed responded favorably when asked about Terry McAuliffe. That person, in turns out, owns an electronic car company in China and is living in America temporarily thanks to an EB-5 visa provided by GreenTech Automotive.

PPP's response:

O man this is awesome: livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/cuccinel… BTW we were the most accurate pollster in Virginia last year: publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/11/o…

— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) May 30, 2013

While other candidates who've found themselves on the losing end of a PPP survey have attacked its methodology -- Mitch McConnell's team regularly criticizes it -- LaCivita takes issue mostly with PPP's admitted partisan leaning.

“I may be a little biased, but we tried very hard to appear objective," LaCivita wrote in the release. "It is our hope and expectation that members of the media will cover our first survey as thoroughly as they have recent surveys by Democrat firms.”

HuffPost Pollster, which tracks surveys released by all (real) firms, finds polls pointing in both directions. Along with PPP, a Quinnipiac University survey also put McAuliffe 5 points ahead, while a Washington Post survey gave Cuccinelli a 5-point lead among registered voters, and a 10-point lead among those likeliest to vote. The Pollster average, combining those and other surveys, puts the two men nearly dead even, with just under 42 percent each.

Once a staunch opponent of voting rights for felons, Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R) appears to be a changed man.

Burke (Va.) Patch revealed Tuesday that a report delivered by a Cuccinelli-commissioned committee suggests a new approach for nonviolent felons to see "restoration" of their rights. Among the items included was the option for governors to exercise "clemency power in a more expansive manner ... on an individual basis."

As detailed on the state's official website, Virginia stands as one of a handful of U.S. states that fails to automatically restore felons' voting rights. The path to change remains bumpy, as Richmond Sunlight lists several 2013 state bills falling on this topic.

On Monday, the Washington Post detailed how Cuccinelli's Virginia state Senate tenure (2002-10) was marked by opposition to felons receiving automatic restoration of voting rights. Fast forwarding to 2013, Cuccinelli told the paper this week that his awareness of the frustrations associated with the process proved to be life-altering.

“I’ve had people who wanted to get rights restored . . . you go through the processes and . . . it can be very, very frustrating,” Cuccinelli said. “That experience did play a role. It’s a real human side of it for me.”

In retirement after 30 years in the U.S. Senate, John W. Warner chooses his words carefully when speaking of the Republican Party.

But he clearly is concerned about the recent tumult in Virginia's GOP.

"The strength of America's political system rests in the strength of having two viable, strong parties in stiff competition," Warner said Thursday in a brief telephone interview from his Washington law firm, Hogan Lovells.

"Today each person has to make up their own mind. I'm concerned about the relative competitive strength of the two parties."

The Virginia GOP has withstood a week of turmoil.

A week ago Saturday, Gov. Bob McDonnell skipped the balloting at the state Republican Convention in Richmond to deliver the commencement address at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

In a shocker to the party establishment, convention delegates nominated E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake minister and attorney, for lieutenant governor. Within hours, media outlets reported on Jackson's past incendiary statements, such as when he called gays "sick" and "perverted" and said Planned Parenthood "has been far, far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was."

Gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli on Monday distanced himself from Jackson's past rhetoric.

"We are not going to be defending our running mates' statements, now or in the future," Cuccinelli said in Abingdon during a tour of the state with Jackson and Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, the nominee for attorney general.

That same day, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling issued a blistering statement, saying that "some of the things (Jackson) has said are indefensible" and "feed the image of extremism" to Republicans' detriment.

Tucker Martin, a spokesman for McDonnell, said in a statement that "the governor believes in a Virginia that provides opportunities and respect for all. There will always be political and policy disagreements, but the governor believes we must express those disagreements with civility."

Some in the party hierarchy treated Jackson as if he were radioactive.

BuzzFeed, a social news website, reported Tuesday that in Washington, Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, "speedily walked away" from a reporter who asked him about Jackson.

Jackson, who attended a fundraiser in Richmond on Thursday, stood by his past remarks, saying: "I do not retract anything that I said."

Amid all of that, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that in November, Cuccinelli directed Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring to investigate the governor's statements of economic interest for possible violations of disclosure laws.

As of Friday, the governor still had not said a word in public about the new GOP ticket.

If the ticket can withstand the early onslaught in reaction to Jackson's candidacy, it still faces fissures between the party's establishment and its insurgent grass roots.

"?'Rift' may be too strong of a word, but there is a difference of opinion in which direction we should go in Virginia," said Laurence Nordvig, executive director of the Richmond Tea Party.

"The tea party wants to go back to the principles of the Constitution and limited government, and establishment Republicans have different ideas."

Nordvig says he does not think that will be a problem in November "because history has shown that most conservatives will vote Republican" and most tea party conservatives believe it is their duty to vote.

Jackson secured the nomination for lieutenant governor after he delivered a seven-minute stemwinder at the convention in which he said he is running "to make sure that Virginia remains sovereign and free."

"Obviously, Bishop Jackson has a lot of support. Otherwise, he would not have received the nomination," said Linwood Cobb, GOP chairman in the 7th Congressional District.

As for McDonnell: "I think the governor stayed away from the convention because it was really Cuccinelli's convention," he said. "I don't think he wanted to intrude on what was really the coronation of a new ticket."

Cobb believes "the ticket will find its legs" over time. He said the slate needs to offer a unified message about jobs and the economy, noting that state unemployment has dropped during McDonnell's administration.

Alluding to Jackson's past statements, he said: "The other stuff will take care of itself, but I certainly wouldn't make that the central focus of my campaign."

Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, served with Cuccinelli and Obenshain in the state Senate, but does not know Jackson.

"I think the next 60 to 90 days are going to tell us something about these three individuals and what their philosophies are for the future of the party," he said. "Whether or not they're going to stick to the very hard-line, hard-right approach to how they do government, I don't know."

Garren Shipley, spokesman for the state Republican Party, stayed away from specifically addressing Jackson or any of his strident stances in the context of the Republican slate.

He referred to the GOP candidates as "three unique individuals" who bring their own "strengths, experiences and passions to the table" that voters will learn in time.

"At the end of the day, we're confident that the shared ideas of limited government, economic freedom and personal liberty that the Republican Party and our candidates promote will be well-received by folks across the state," he said.

Quentin Kidd, a political analyst at Christopher Newport University, said the goal of any candidate is to move to the median of the electorate that is going to show up to vote and try to capture a majority.

Jackson's entry into the race pulls Cuccinelli further to the right and could hurt him, Kidd said.

"But if Cuccinelli and his campaign staff are really smart and sophisticated, they can actually use Jackson to slingshot to the middle and use Jackson as a foil," Kidd said.

He cited the 1993 Republican ticket in which George Allen won for governor, but home-schooling advocate Michael Farris lost the contest for lieutenant governor.

Cuccinelli "has to get far enough away from Jackson, but not so far away that they create a big fight in the Republican Party."

Democrats also run the risk of overplaying their hand when it comes to Jackson, he added.

"Jackson has already said he is being persecuted because of his religion," Kidd said. "Democrats could pile on a little bit too much and Jackson could become a sympathetic figure, a martyr."

Warner, who left office in January 2009, has raised concerns about his party before. In 1994, for instance, he backed J. Marshall Coleman's independent bid for the U.S. Senate, rather than endorse Oliver L. North, the Republican nominee.

As for the current contretemps, Warner said he is paying close attention to "this situation in the state."

"Each person in our state's got to make their own judgment," he said, adding, "on that issue, I maintain a golden silence -- because the facts are clear for all to interpret."

acain@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6645

Staff writers Michael Martz, Markus Schmidt and Jim Nolan contributed

to this report. ___

New York novelist Dawn Powell wrote on the cusp of World War II, "Civilization stood on a ledge, and in the tension of waiting it was a relief to have one little man jump." Alas, these days the crazy ones don't jump off ledges, they get elected to Congress.

Our national politics increasingly resembles a party in which your crazy uncle got hold of the karaoke microphone and won't give it back until he finishes a paranoid rant. Maybe if you pour him another Manhattan, he'll pass out before all your guests leave.

The crazy uncles have taken over the Republican Party. You might be able to get rid of some of them if you could require runoffs in primary elections, but good luck getting that reform through the state legislature. The crazies have a devoted constituency, and Fox News is their microphone.

So we're stuck with the Louie Gohmerts and Michele Bachmanns for a while. Aside from fantasizing about the scene in Mars Attacks! in which a death ray wipes out a joint session of Congress, we have to do our best to keep things going while the crazies continue their rants.

Meet the new loon from Virginia, Republican Lt. Gov. nominee Bishop E.W. Jackson, who accuses President Obama of having "a Muslim perspective," and who said in October that homosexuality "poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies, it brings the judgment of God...." He'll be a font of hilarity for the next four years if the Democrat to be chosen in next month's primary doesn't defeat him. Virginia's gubernatorial race is an uninspiring choice between soulless Democratic hack Terry McAuliffe and Republican fanatic Ken Cuccinelli. Given those choices, I guess I'll go with the soulless hack.

The 2012 election brought no accountability moment for right-wing know-it-alls, whose reality-free punditry continues. As top number cruncher Nate Silver told Out last December about one solon who had breezily predicted victory for Mitt Romney, "Peggy Noonan is someone who is very, very skilled at making bullshit look like some elegant soufflé." Last week, after Noonan called the IRS auditing scandal the "worst Washington scandal since Watergate" and cited anecdotal evidence to invent a new charge that conservative Obama critics were being targeted for audits, Silver blasted her with a sharp schooling in statistics.

Not that facts matter. Tea Partiers who smell blood won't even heed conservative establishment voices like Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, Newt Gingrich, and Reince Priebus, who urged them to drop the unhinged rhetoric and stick to the evidence. They might as well lecture a waterfall. The crazy-base problem is richly deserved by Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who never dream of putting the nation's interests ahead of their own. Unfortunately, the entire country bears the consequences.

The aggressive obstructionism in Congress amounts to an attempted takeover by a determined minority that disenfranchises as many of its opponents as possible and keeps the rest divided, aided by a bottom-feeding media. The wild card is the social conservatives, who can no longer be controlled by the plutocrats who so long exploited them.

Overreaching and hyper-partisanship by the Obama haters are overshadowing legitimate concerns, such as those about Justice Department actions. For now I will content myself with the pleasure of watching Attorney General Eric Holder blast Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for his bullying tactics at a May 15 Judiciary Committee hearing: "That is inappropriate and is too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress. It is unacceptable and it's shameful."

Someone has to stand up to the malignant clowns who seem determined to push the country toward Armageddon. They are more scary than funny. We need to stop hiring them.

This piece appeared in Bay Windows and Metro Weekly.

Democrats couldn't hold back their ecstasy this past weekend when the Republican Party of Virginia nominated minister E. W. Jackson as its candidate for lieutenant governor. Jackson is an extremist's extremist. He believes President Obama is a Muslim (and therefore an atheist, because logic). He believes that the Democratic Party has been worse for blacks than slavery ever was thanks to its support of abortion. He thinks gays and lesbians are bad -- really, really bad.

It's easy to understand why Democrats were so excited. Virginia is increasingly purple. The state senate is closely divided (although the house is comfortably in GOP hands), and two of the last three governors were Democrats. President Obama won the state's electoral votes in both 2008 and 2012. By choosing a genuinely certifiable nut as their nominee for the state's second-highest office, Republicans have made it clear that their values are way outside the mainstream of Virginia's electorate.

Jackson's nomination (which came via a convention rather than a primary, an odd quirk of Virginia GOP politics that tends to push the party further to the right) is a disaster for candidates up and down the ballot, said the rapidly gelling common wisdom. Not only would it hurt their chances to hold onto a slim majority in the Senate (and a critical tie-breaking vote), but it would seriously damage the chances of attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, the candidate for governor already dogged by charges of extremism. Dems salivated at the chance to tie the two men closely together, and Cuccinelli, for the sake of party unity, obliged them by putting out a statement praising the running mate who had been foisted upon him. It was a disaster, and Democrats couldn't have been happier.

But having to run with Jackson might be the the best thing that ever happened to Ken Cuccinelli.

I worked for Terry McAuliffe when he chaired the DNC and with him on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and like most of the people who know him and have worked for him, I personally like him very much. He's a genuinely nice guy, has great stories, and actually cares more than most people think about the principles Democrats fight for. He's pro-business, to be sure (which is a good fit for a state that elects Democrats like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner), but his instincts are solidly liberal.

But I'm realistic about his weaknesses as a candidate. He is (to put it gently) wildly loathed by many Democrats, especially most progressives, who see him as the worst kind of old-school machine politician. He can come off as ungenuine even when he is at his most genuine. When he first ran in 2009, the commonwealth's Democrats were ecstatic to nominate Creigh Deeds solely because it meant they didn't have to choose between McAuliffe and the equally despised Brian Moran. While people who know Terry like him, average voters do not.

That meant McAuliffe had to clear the primary field for another run, which he did handily this year. (Internal party politics, after all, are where he excels.) It also meant he has one strategy to win this year: paint Ken Cuccinelli -- who at first glance is an appealing candidate -- as a wild-eyed extremist.

Cuccinelli makes this pretty easy given the things he believes in. This is the same attorney general who wanted to punish university professors for working on climate change science. He's anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-Obamacare, and he's wrapped up in a scandal where he received gifts from a tobacco-technology company -- that he's an investor in. By any normal standards, he's one of the most right-wing elected officials in the country.

But his new running mate E. W. Jackson makes Cuccinelli look like Mike Bloomberg. The more time the media and oppo-researchers spend digging up old statements of Jackson's (and there is already a goldmine out there), the more normal -- and electable -- Cuccinelli looks.

It's a delicate game for Cuccinelli to play. He has to begin the general election season with an arm warily around Jackson. Any early overt rejection could damage turnout among his base and look cynical. But Jackson is certain to give Cuccinelli plenty of chances for Sister Souljah moments: look for him to denounce Jackson -- or at least chide him sternly -- over some offensive comments that come up in the course of the campaign.

Governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately in Virginia, so voters who want to reject Jackson and elect Cuccinelli are free to do so. With the media focusing intently on Jackson (he's obviously the Sarah Palin in this race), it sets up a perfect storyline for Cuccinelli: Jackson on the right, McAuliffe on the left, and Cuccinelli in between. In a purple state like Virginia, that's just where you want to be.

Recently, I asked Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, one of the most fiercely pro-choice members of Congress, why she thought the House of Representatives had been so muted this year in its introduction of anti-abortion and anti–Planned Parenthood bills. “It pays to fight,” she said.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- The Virginia Republican Party took a post-convention victory lap on Tuesday in a parking lot outside gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli's headquarters. While the gatherers had come to propel the top of the ticket to a November victory, it was Cuccinelli's newly minted sidekick who stole the show.

Lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Bishop E.W. Jackson was an unexpected nominee, the product of a convention process that doomed the more conventional choices. He's also a nominee with baggage, weighed with a lengthy history of anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-Obama remarks.

Jackson made no attempt to soften the edges on Tuesday, despite whispers from Virginia Republicans that his selection may doom Cuccinelli's chances. Instead, Jackson charged forward with gusto.

"We are going to explode the lies and the myths about the conservative movement!" Jackson said from a pickup truck parked next to a neighboring salon. "I'm sure you all know, they are attacking me already -- I don't fit the mold."

"One reporter, I think it was The Huffington Post, actually wrote, 'We know this guy's way out there because he actually says we're going to get government off our backs, off our property, off our guns, out of our families, out of our health care, out of our business, out of our lives, and out of our way.' So, guilty as charged."

A crowd of about 160 stood in the hot sun, applauding and cheering.

Within hours of winning the nomination at the state Republican Party convention on Saturday Jackson had become a much-discussed figure. Within hours, opposition research was coming in waves. Jackson had compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, said President Barack Obama had a "Muslim perspective" on the world and noted a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.

Cuccinelli, whose appeal has been based, in part, on his socially conservative views, has spent the campaign shifting his message to the economy and crime. Jackson's selection seems to complicate that, even more so that he won't back down from past statements.

"I don't have anything to rephrase or to apologize for," Jackson told reporters. "I would just say, people should not paint me as one-dimensional. I have a whole lot of concerns." He mentioned jobs and the economy.

It seemed a reasonable enough request. But part of the problem facing Jackson is Jackson himself. Rather than moving the conversation to economic policy, he seems eager to stay engaged in social policy debate. He waded into abortion on Tuesday, which he said was having a "devastating impact" on black people.

"Thirty-seven percent of abortions happen in the black community," he told reporters. "Only 11 percent of the people in the country are black. Something's wrong here, particularly when you consider the history of Margaret Sanger. I mean, she didn't begin this with clean hands. She began thinking about how do we limit the populations of feeble-minded people, minority people.

"I think the press ought to at least explore this and say, 'Well, you know, is there anything to this idea, since it was formed that way ... that there's some sort of effort to make sure there's no growth in the minority population.' Now maybe there's not. I'm not saying there is."

For Virginia Republicans -- perhaps even the GOP at large -- the first round of events by the lieutenant governor candidate seems unlikely to have assuaged fears that the party hasn't learned the lessons of 2012.

Comments about abortion and rape sunk the 2012 Senate candidacies of Rep. Todd Akinin Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. In the wake of those failures, former Bush hand Karl Rove formed a super PAC to guard against right-wing challengers. Presumed 2016 presidential hopeful Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) warned Republicans not to become the "stupid party."

It's too early to judge Jackson the type of candidate they feared. But his nomination has some Republicans already sounding the warning. Lt. Gov Bill Bolling, who Cuccinelli outgunned for the gubernatorial nomination, has criticized Jackson.

"These kinds of comments are simply not appropriate, especially not from someone who wants to be a standard-bearer for our party and hold the second-highest elected office in our state," Bolling told Politico.

Most in the Fredericksburg crowd seemed unconcerned about the past.

"The media's bias is to bring up dirty stuff to anyone who tries to straighten the country out," said Fleta Del Bianco, of Spotsylvania, Va. "He is a great speaker, a great orator."

Chris Garofalo, 20, a student at Christopher Newport University, acknowledged that to some Jackson could come across as fringe. But Garofalo defended him nevertheless. "He's very passionate, and there's bigger things than marriage," Garofalo said. "The main point is the economy."

Support like this will have to be sustained over the next few weeks, as the drip, drip, drip of Jackson's past comments keep coming. The website TPM reported Tuesday that Jackson lent his support against a plan to desegregate public housing in South Boston, which he called "social engineering."

"I think that maximum emphasis needs to be put on the ability of people to choose, even if that means some housing developments are predominantly of one race or another," Jackson told station WGBH in 1988.

The revelation by itself won't sink his campaign. But his general election campaign is only three days old.

Add one of Virginia's most prominent Republicans to the list of names miffed by GOP lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson's past.

Politico reports that current Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R) spoke out against Jackson's history of questionable remarks on Monday, calling them "simply indefensible."

After Jackson was nominated on Saturday to run alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, a line of controversial comments from his past were reinvigorated. The lines under scrutiny ranged from comparing Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, to charging that President Barack Obama has a "Muslim perspective" on the world.

“These kinds of comments are simply not appropriate, especially not from someone who wants to be a standard bearer for our party and hold the second highest elected office in our state,” Bolling told Politico.

Bolling is not alone among GOP voices doubting the addition of Jackson to the gubernatorial-race picture. The Washington Post reported on Monday that some Virginia Republicans are on edge. One strategist told the paper "We're in a deep [expletive]," while another GOP source expressed concern that Democrats would be more mobilized to head to the polls.

HuffPost Pollster's latest compilation of 14 different polls finds Cuccinelli and Democratic foe Terry McAuliffe in a neck-and-neck picture. As of four days ago, Cuccinelli was holding a 43.4 percent to 40.6 percent edge over McAuliffe.

E.W. Jackson, the conservative minister nominated to run for lieutenant governor by the Virginia Republican Party, once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, Politico reported Sunday.

In a video posted to YouTube last September, the minister and activist urged black Christians to reject the "ridiculous lies" of the "Democrat Party."

"It is time to end the slavish devotion to the Democrat Party," Jackson says in the clip. "They have insulted us, used us and manipulated us. They have saturated the black community with ridiculous lies... They think we are stupid and that these lies will hold us captive while they violate everything we believe as Christians.

He continues, "The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was. And the Democrat Party and the black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide."

Watch Jackson's full video above.

On Saturday, Virginia Republicans selected Jackson over six other potential candidates to run with gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, an outspoken tea party favorite. Jackson will be the first African-American nominee for a statewide post in Virginia in more than two decades.

Jackson spoke Saturday at the Virginia GOP convention, vowing to "get the government off our backs, off our property, out of our families, out of our health care and out of our way," according to the Washington Post.

Jackson is no stranger to inflammatory remarks. As BuzzFeed reported Sunday, the minister wrote in a 2010 blog post that Obama has a "Muslim perspective" on the world.

"Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities," he wrote. "He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective ... Those who are paying attention and thinking about these issues do not find it unreasonable to consider that President Obama is influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism picked up from the black community, his leftist friends and colleagues, his Muslim associations and his long period of mentorship under Jeremiah Wright. If this conclusion is accurate, Israel has some dark days ahead."

Cuccinelli will face off against former Democratic National Committee chair Terry McAuliffe in November's general election. The Democrats have yet to select their candidate for lieutenant governor.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal kicked off the state Republican Convention in Richmond last night, telling a packed house that Ken Cuccinelli, the GOP nominee for governor, has the courage of his convictions.

Jindal, a son of immigrants from India who is a potential 2016 presidential candidate, also called upon the national Republican Party to fight for "100 percent of the votes" and to unite the country.

"If we want Americans to like us, we have to like them, first," Jindal said at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Jindal's speech closed the first day of the GOP convention. Today at the Richmond Coliseum 14,000 delegates from across Virginia will nominate the party's candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Jindal praised Cuccinelli, who today will formally accept the party's nomination for governor.

"We live in a time where too many elected officials stick their finger up in the air to see where the wind is blowing," Jindal said.

"I'm tired of these kinds of politicians. I'd rather have a principled, articulate conservative leader. We need Ken to be your next governor because we need that kind of man with courage and convictions."

Jindal also threw a barb at Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"I do thank the Virginia Democratic Party," Jindal said. "They made the greatest gift possible by making Terry McAuliffe their nominee."

While Jindal has cut taxes six times in Louisiana, including the largest income tax cut in the state's history, he fell out of grace among some on the party's right after his recent remarks that Republicans needed to stop being "the stupid party."

In January, two months after President Barack Obama won re-election, Jindal addressed the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in Charlotte, N.C., where he said several Republicans had damaged the party's brand in 2012 "with offensive and bizarre comments."

In Richmond Friday, he said Republicans can adhere to principle and be inclusive.

"Washington wants us to change our platform and abandon our principles but this country already has one liberal party," he said. "It certainly doesn't need two."

Jindal also praised Gov. Bob McDonnell, who attended the dinner.

"McDonnell has a phenomenal track record," Jindal said. "He promised he'd create good conditions for the private sector and he has done just that."

McDonnell will miss today's balloting. He will be the commencement speaker at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Earlier on Friday, Pat Mullins, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, officially opened the convention at the Richmond Coliseum.

"Isn't it a great day to be a Republican in Virginia?" Mullins asked the crowd as it began pouring into the venue.

"It is always fun to hear our liberal friends say that the Republican Party is dead," Mullins said. "But tomorrow, 14,000 of us will gather here in Richmond. Virginia will stay a conservative state built on the same principles Washington and Jefferson have fought for over 200 years ago," he said.

Today, balloting is expected to begin at noon. The unusually high number of candidates -- five men and two women are seeking the party's nomination for lieutenant governor -- is likely to drag out the balloting over five, maybe six hours.

The candidates are former state legislator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis; attorney and minister E.W. Jackson; Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William; Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield; technology entrepreneur Peter A. Snyder; Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors; and Susan B. Stimpson, chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors.

Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, and Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, are the two Republican contenders for attorney general.

Delegates also will formally nominate Cuccinelli, as the party's candidate for governor. He will give his acceptance speech this morning.

Cuccinelli became the Republican nominee Jan. 14 when he was the only Republican who had filed to run for governor by the party's deadline.

A familiar face missing at the convention is Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who announced last week that he would not attend because he favors primaries over a convention's balloting process.

After arriving in Richmond on Friday, many delegates took the chance to network and connect outside the Coliseum before heading into the arena. There was hardly a delegate without a campaign shirt or sticker, showing support for their favorite.

"The Republican Party has a very good field of candidates this year. That's a good sign and will bring us a lot of momentum heading into the election," said Wendell Walker, a delegate from Lynchburg.

"We will not let happen what happened in Virginia in the presidential election last year. Virginia is staying in conservative hands," Walker said.

Snyder mingled with the crowd outside, making a final pitch.

"It's all adrenaline at this point," he said.

Also in the crowd was Stewart. The chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors enjoyed a boost last month after an endorsement by the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots, but came under scrutiny this week when several tea party groups attacked the umbrella organization for backing Stewart.

Stewart was unmoved by the squabble. "The initial endorsement helped us a lot, but we don't know yet the effect of the recent attacks," he said. "I think we're still picking up steam."

The two candidates for attorney general also talked to delegates outside, trying to sway some minds in the final hours before the nominations.

"We're going to see democracy at its base level. It's an exciting process, a very open process," Obenshain said.

Bell said he is more than ready for the balloting. "After one and a half years, more than 10,000 miles on the road, this is coming to an end," he said.

mschmidt@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6537 ___

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's activist conservative attorney general has won the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination by acclamation.

At the GOP's statewide convention, thousands of conservatives and tea party followers who dominated the Richmond Coliseum on Saturday roared their unanimous support for Ken Cuccinelli. He was unopposed for the nomination and is generally beloved by the tea party for his aggressive challenges to federal mandates

By Gary Robertson

RICHMOND, Va., May 17 (Reuters) - The most nail-biting U.S. governor's race this year is centering on whether a Tea Party Republican can win Virginia, the southern state that has twice backed Democratic President Barack Obama.

So far, the answer is: maybe.

Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, known for his anti-abortion and tax-cutting positions, is in a tight race with Terry McAuliffe, a former national Democratic Party chairman. The election will take place in November.

With Cuccinelli set to be nominated formally at a state party convention on Saturday, a Quinnipiac University poll this week showed him with 38 percent support, behind McAuliffe's 43 percent.

"The 17 percent of voters who say they are undecided will determine the Commonwealth's next governor," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "At this point, neither man seems to have much of an edge."

More than $11 million has poured into a race seen as crucial to reviving national fortunes for Republicans, and especially its Tea Party right wing, after Obama's re-election last year and the loss of two seats in the Senate.

Robert Holsworth, a political analyst who has worked for governors from both parties, said Republicans saw Cuccinelli's candidacy as a national test case.

"Would Republicans be better off running someone with clear principles like Cuccinelli or someone in the mushy middle?" Holsworth said. "Some people will read these elections as an early signal about 2014" midterm congressional elections.

More than anything else, Cuccinelli, 44, has been known for sticking to the conservative principles that have made him a darling of the anti-tax, anti-government Tea Party.

Cuccinelli set off a storm in Virginia by pushing through rules mandating that abortion clinics meet the same standards as hospitals. Abortion rights supporters said it could lead some clinics to close.

Cuccinelli also opposed a bipartisan transportation package Republican Governor Bob McDonnell got through the legislature because it would bring in $880 million a year from new taxes.


"WE WERE BEAT"

At a Chesterfield County Republican Party gathering in late April, Cuccinelli urged the crowd to shake off the "depression" that had set in since Obama won the state in November for the second time.

"We were beat, and we have a lot of ground to make up," he said.

With jobs and the slow-growing economy the top issues for voters, McAuliffe, a 56-year-old millionaire who headed President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996, told supporters when he kicked off his campaign this month that he woke up every morning thinking about "training a good work force."

Virginia's unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in March, more than 2 percentage points below the national average. But the state is one of the biggest recipients of federal outlays, and officials fear it could be hit hard as the U.S. government cuts spending.

Besides indicating a tight race, polls point to an electorate that is at odds with Cuccinelli and Virginia Republicans' positions on social issues.

Although Cuccinelli opposes gay marriage, a Washington Post poll this week showed 56 percent of Virginians were in favor of it. Fifty-five percent also support keeping abortion legal, the poll said.


CRITICISM

McAuliffe has been criticized because of his connection with GreenTech, a struggling Mississippi-based electric car manufacturer that he helped launch. He later quit as chairman, saying he wanted to focus on his race for governor.

Critics have said the company failed to live up to its promise and undermines McAuliffe's claim to be a successful entrepreneur.

Cuccinelli has come under fire following news stories questioning his relationship with nutritional supplement company Star Scientific and Chief Executive Officer Jonnie Williams Sr. Cuccinelli has acknowledged that he took gifts from Williams, including a catered $1,500 Thanksgiving dinner.

McAuliffe is ahead in fundraising, generating $6.7 million to Cuccinelli's $4.4 million as of March 31. By comparison, almost $41 million was spent in the 2009 governor's race McDonnell won.

In a sign of the national interest in the contest, much of the money for this year's race is from outside Virginia. McAuliffe is his own top donor, giving almost $300,000.

Cuccinelli's backers include the Republican Governors Association, which has given $1 million; investor Foster Friess, who backed Republican Rick Santorum's presidential bid last year; and conservative political activist David Koch.

In New Jersey, the only other state with a gubernatorial race this year, incumbent Republican Chris Christie holds a double-digit lead over his Democratic opponent, state Senator Barbara Buono, in early polling. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Arlene Getz and Lisa Von Ahn)

Democrat Terry McAuliffe holds a 5-point lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia gubernatorial race, according to a poll released Thursday.

The Quinnipiac poll finds McAuliffe ahead by 43 percent to 38 percent among registered voters -- the best numbers he's had since January.

Two surveys released earlier this month found Cuccinelli winning among a narrower subset of Virginia voters, those considered likely to turn out on Election Day. The NBC/Marist poll put McAuliffe ahead 2 points among registered voters, but Cuccinelli leading by 3 points among likely voters. The Washington Post found Cuccinelli leading by 5 points among all voters and 10 points among likely voters.

The numbers suggest that Democrats face the greater turnout problem: Young and minority voters, who support McAuliffe, are less likely to vote in off-year elections.

It's early in the race, however, and few Virginians are paying much attention.

In the Quinnipiac survey, 60 percent of voters said they hadn't heard enough about McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic Party, to have an opinion on him, and 42 percent said the same of Cuccinelli, the state's attorney general. Neither percentage has budged much since November, even as the candidates ramp up their campaigns.

"At this point, neither candidate sets the electorate's heart atwitter," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in the poll release. "But we are starting to see the beginning of the television advertising campaign by the two candidates, and presumably those ads will begin to introduce the candidates to the voters."

In the meantime, it's probably too soon to draw any hard conclusions. As The Guardian's Harry Enten notes, polling at this stage in 2009 largely underestimated Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's 17-point win.

HuffPost Pollster's average, which combines all publicly available polling, finds the two gubernatorial candidates effectively tied at just under 43 percent.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,286 registered Virginia voters by phone between May 8 and May 13.