Attorney General Cuccinelli to Run for Virginia Governor, Official Says

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia's crusading conservative attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, has decided to run for governor in 2013, touching off a fierce, two-year clash for the Republican nomination, a senior GOP official close to Cuccinelli said on Wednesday.

Cuccinelli's decision, first reported by the Washington Post, roils the upper reaches of the party in the same month that the GOP took a working majority in the state Senate, consolidating its grip on policymaking in Virginia.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli was elected in a 2009 GOP landslide. He was among the first state attorneys general to file suit challenging President Barack Obama's health care reform law just days after a Democratic Congress approved it.

He has become a darling of Virginia's tea party movement and a devil to Democrats for his aggressive efforts to dismantle their landmark initiatives. He's also had become a staple for television comedians and pundits for some of his actions in his first two years in office.

He invoked the wrath of university administrators by advising state colleges that they lack the legal authority to protect gay employees from discrimination.

And he was lampooned by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and others for voicing distaste over the bare-breasted goddess Virtus depicted on the Great Seal of Virginia standing over the body of a vanquished tyrant over the slogan "Sic Semper Tyrannis," or "thus always to tyrants."

A top deputy to Cuccinelli in the attorney general's office, Rick Neel, declined to comment on the reports of his boss's candidacy.

Cuccinelli had said for months that while he would not rule out a run for governor at some point, he was content to seek re-election in 2013, virtually guaranteeing Republican possession of the attorney general's office for a sixth straight term. That heartened Republicans eager to add to gains in the General Assembly in November's elections.

That was a comfort to Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who seemed positioned as the uncontested heir-apparent to popular GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell. Other Republicans also like the idea of Bolling running, relishing the opportunity to stockpile campaign cash for over the next two years to use against Democrats, not in a bitter intramural nomination battle for their ticket's top slot.