Emails from Washington: 2016 by Paul Begala

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

2016 by Paul Begala

Forget Iowa and New Hampshire, friend.

The 2016 Republican presidential primary season starts this week in Virginia when a parade of the most likely candidates starts hitting the campaign trail for Ken Cuccinelli — and perhaps their future presidential campaigns.

Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are up first, and they'll be followed before Election Day by at least two more — Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

Bush, Rubio and the others can draw big crowds, and they'll headline fundraisers that will bring in hundreds of thousands of right wing special interest dollars for the Cuccinelli campaign.

I've worked on a lot of tight races, so I can tell you that money can make a huge difference at this stage of the game.

Will you donate $5 to Terry's Rapid Response Fund to make sure he can fight back swiftly against the mounting Republican attacks?

Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are coming to town because they know pushing Ken Cuccinelli across the finish line in the most-watched election of 2013 will help them build momentum going into their prospective presidential campaigns.

They're thinking a little bigger than Virginia, and they're not the only ones.

Last week, Ken Cuccinelli started running ads that made his own aspirations a little clearer: "The national comeback begins in Virginia," they read. "Help Ken Cuccinelli rebuild America."

Cuccinelli might want to be governor of Virginia — badly — but his ads show this race is a stepping stone. And given the amount of time he's spending with potential presidential nominees, who knows what's next.

Chip in $5 right now to help elect the only candidate in this race who'll put Virginia first — my friend Terry McAuliffe.

Virginians deserve a governor laser-focused on what's happening right here in the Commonwealth. We deserve a governor who'll wake up every day thinking about how to create jobs, improve our schools, fix our gridlock — not one who'll wake up thinking about his next career move.

Thanks for supporting Terry,

Paul Begala