Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli got a helping hand from 2012 vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Tuesday evening.
Ryan, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, and Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Republican attorney general, held a conference call with reporters to slam the roll-out of President Obama’s health-care law and emphasize Cuccinelli’s work battling the law.
“I think the president’s response in the Rose Garden yesterday was very much inadequate,” Ryan said of President Obama’s explanation for the Obamacare website technical failures. “If this were only a problem with a website, that would be one thing. But that’s just a symptom of a much, much, deeper problem and that is this health-care law is fundamentally broken from its core architecture.”
Cuccinelli’s campaign said the call was to highlight “the job-killing ramifications of ObamaCare and the sustainability of Medicaid under the legislation.”
“Cuccinelli was the first attorney general in the nation to sue the federal government over ObamaCare and yesterday held an event with four other attorneys general highlighting their fight against the devastating legislation,” the campaign said. “At the event, Cuccinelli called on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to step down and for Congress to pass legislation to delay the individual mandate for one year.”
The race has been close, but Democrat Terry McAuliffe has taken a commanding lead in recent days. The former Democratic National Committee chairman is polling 17 points higher than Cuccinelli, according to a Rasmussen Poll released Tuesday.
Ryan offered his support to Cuccinelli, but said he didn’t think he would make it to Virginia — a 10-minute drive from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. — before the Nov. 5 election to campaign. “I’m a little busy doing budget negotiations right now,” said Ryan, the House budget committee chairman.
“We’re glad to get him by phone,” Cuccinelli added. “And appreciate the support.”