Race for governor in Virginia a 'referendum' on ObamaCare?

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Race for governor in Virginia a 'referendum' on ObamaCare?

Candidate Ken Cuccinelli speaks out

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," November 4, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: That's the very question that Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state of Virginia, is asking. He joins us now on the phone.

Attorney General, thank you.

What do you make of this unraveling of the health care law? The president when he was stumping on behalf of your opponent, Terry McAuliffe, didn't mention it once.

KENNETH CUCCINELLI , R-VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, isn't that incredible?

The most -- the most in-the-news-item in the whole race and he doesn't even mention it. And that tells you perhaps more than anything else he could have said. It is falling apart before our very eyes. I don't need to recite all the different ways.

But here in Virginia, we have also got Democrats who are even saying things like, you know, these doctors aren't taking enough Medicaid and Medicare patients, maybe we got to force them to do it. So the squashing of liberty under ObamaCare is nowhere near done yet. And we contend with more and more of it every day. And these folks, including my opponent, didn't think it went far enough.

So, we're -- it is a major distinction in the race. And tomorrow has turned very much into a referendum on ObamaCare. We were glad the president came in yesterday, because it helped crystallize everyone's focus on that very point.

CAVUTO: Attorney General, speaking for those are just tuning in, with Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor in the state of Virginia.

We did put out calls to Terry McAuliffe. We have not been able to lock down an interview with him. So, our regrets about that.

But, Ken, back to what you were talking about, the health care law, do you think the government shutdown, especially since there are so many government workers and those attached to the government in Virginia, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area, that it hurt you, and it robbed you of a chance at an opportunity to explain you were among the first in the nation to warn and try to sort of, you know, de-hook this health care law in the first place?

CUCCINELLI: Well, if anything, it certainly drew attention away from from -- and from ObamaCare, which began October 1.

As you noted, I was the first to sue in the whole country over it three-and-a-half years ago. And -- but for the last two-and-a-half weeks, we have had a pretty relentless focus of the news media on this subject. And it's a very clear difference. I was the first to fight it.

CAVUTO: So you don't -- you don't think it's too little too late and that this -- again, this shutdown...

CUCCINELLI: Well, Neil...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: ... whether people agree or disagree with it...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: ... that it's...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: ... sidetracked?

CUCCINELLI: We will find out tomorrow.

CAVUTO: OK. All right.

CUCCINELLI: I mean, it's one of those things, every poll's a lagging indicator except Election Day.

I will tell you this. It's motivating a lot of people on our side. And like you said, the president didn't even mention it yesterday. Terry McAuliffe didn't mention it. I'm scared of what ObamaCare's doing to Virginians. And Terry McAuliffe is scared of what ObamaCare is doing to Terry McAuliffe.

And we -- we're -- we're trying to get that word out. And -- and as people get cancellation notice, tens of thousands of them in Virginia already, and now we know from the administration we can expect about 2 million Virginians over the course of the next year to get notices of cancellation of their health insurance.

This is being delivered to us courtesy of ObamaCare. And I was the first to fight it. We're hoping people will come to the polls tomorrow to send Washington a message about what a failure ObamaCare is. And tomorrow's turned very much into a referendum on ObamaCare in Virginia.

CAVUTO: If you were to lose -- I know you don't see that as a case -- but would it also be a referendum that people are OK with ObamaCare?

CUCCINELLI: Well, I don't know. We're going to have to see how it plays out.

Certainly, we have come from behind and closed this to an anybody's ball game, in part based upon ObamaCare, while being badly outspent. I mean, what people in other states don't see is that we're being outspent by tremendous ratios on television, coming from out-of-state money, whether it's Michael Bloomberg or unions or Planned Parenthood, or whomever it is. They're putting tons of money into my opponent and we don't have the equivalent necessarily coming in on our side. And they're lying through their teeth about a lot of...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But are you hurt by what appears to be a division within the Republican Party between Tea Partiers and very conservative types who argue...

(CROSSTALK)

CUCCINELLI: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

CAVUTO: You don't think you were hurt by that?

CUCCINELLI: No, no, no, not right now, no.

No, everybody is totally unified on this. Independents are coming around on this. And it's really -- like I said, the president coming here has also helped crystallize people's focus. It isn't just Republican. It's everybody. And Democrats aren't stepping up and defending this program. They recognize -- some of them now recognize openly that we're on the right side of this.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, do you think they knew all along the stuff you were warning about and now the latest revelations that this could affect tens of millions of Americans on corporate health care plans of their own that thought they were immune to this, but they're not immune to this? Did you have a sense then, do you think Democrats had a sense then that this was much bigger than they were letting on?

CUCCINELLI: Well, certainly some of them did. As we have read recently, the White House certainly knew for years and continued to lie to us anyway. And...

CAVUTO: So, you think they lied? You think they lied? You don't think that the president just didn't know?

(CROSSTALK)

CUCCINELLI: Neil, there's -- there's no think about it.

I mean, they debated within the White House whether or not to tell the truth, which is amazing itself. What's even more amazing is they decided, no, we won't tell them the truth.

And then -- and now they try to, you know, wordplay it. "Well, it's just a transition. "

CAVUTO: Right.

CUCCINELLI: Tell that to all the people losing their health insurance.

CAVUTO: OK. Ken Cuccinelli, thank you very, very much.

CUCCINELLI: Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: Again, we tried for Terry McAuliffe as well, always, but we're not going to deny one over the other if you can't get the other. All right.

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