Private Law Practice

In private practice, Cuccinelli specialized in patent and business law and worked as outside general counsel for small and mid-sized companies.

Cuccinelli was accused in February 2010 of violating the rules of the attorney general's office when he returned to a Fairfax County courtroom to represent a private client. His aides said it was a sensitive case involving children to which Cuccinelli had previously committed himself, but that it would be the last time he defended a private client.

Virginia Senate

Cuccinelli was first elected to the Virginia General Assembly in a special election in August 2002 after his Republican predecessor, state Sen. Warren Barry, resigned to take a job with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Cuccinelli was reelected in 2003 and 2007. Though his 2007 victory was by a margin of less than 100 votes, the fact that Cuccinelli prevailed at all in a district that frequently votes Democratic still constituted a stunning victory for the Republican.

As the last Republican to hold one of Northern Virginia's ten Senate seats, and considered the most conservative member of the Virginia Senate Cuccinelli aggressively pushed conservative initiatives.

His anti-abortion proposals included denying state funds to Planned Parenthood and the creation of the "Choose Life" license plates, which fund anti-abortion efforts.

To combat illegal immigration, he unsuccessfully proposed allowing employers to fire employees who don't speak English, making them ineligible for unemployment benefits.

2009 Campaign

Cuccinelli won the Republican nomination for attorney general over two contenders to become the first Northern Virginia Republican on the GOP ticket since 1993. And his promise to be a anti-abortion rights, pro-gun, anti-government attorney general made him appealing to more rural parts of the state.

Cuccinelli's unabashed conservative platform was in stark contrast to that of the man at the head of the Republican ticket, outgoing attorney general Bob McDonnell, a conservative running for governor on a moderate platform focused on jobs and transportation and intent on avoiding divisive social issues.

Cuccinelli easily defeated Democrat Stephen C. Shannon, 58 to 42 percent, despite Shannon's efforts to portray Cuccinelli as an extremist intent on using the office to promote a political agenda.

Fight over Global Warming

Scarcely a month after taking office, Cuccinelli had plunged Virginia into the international debate over global warming, charging that the Environmental Protection Agency's claims that humans contributed to warming "unreliable, unverifiable and doctored" and arguing in a lawsuit that new environmental regulations would devastate Virginia businesses.

Letter on Gay Discrimination

Cuccinelli ignited an angry outpouring on Virginia's college campus, and drew rebukes from other Republicans, for sending a March 2009 letter advising the state's schools that their discrimination policies could not protect gays.

The letter forced McDonnell to issue an order protecting gay state employees from discrimination, an embarrassing twist for McDonnell who previously opposed extending protections to gays.

Suing Over Health Care

Just days after igniting the debate over gay rights, Cuccinelli announced plans to derail President Obama's sweeping health-care reforms enacted in March 2010 without any GOP support. Immediately after the House vote, Cuccinnelli sent a Tweet announcing his lawsuit against it: "Well, they did it. Once the president signs it into law, we'll walk across the street and file suit b/c the ind[ividual] mandate is unconstitutional."

Keeping his word, Cuccinelli filed suit in Richmond just minutes after Obama signed the reforms into law. He argued that the federal government violated the constitution and a new Virginia law by requiring Americans to buy health insurance. The new state law that said Virginians could not be forced to buy insurance was approved just a week before the House acted.

Cuccinnelli won the first round, with a U.S. District Court judge ruling in December 2010 that it was unconstitutional for the law to require everyone to carry health insurance (i.e. outlawing individual mandates). The federal government is appealing, but in February, Cuccinnelli announced that he would seek immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court, thereby bypassing intermediary courts and seeking a faster decision.

Show less