Ken Cuccinelli, the newly elected president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, says the GOP is blowing "enormous sums" of money to prop up "dead-weight" Republicans who don't stand for anything.
"The Republican Party is spending it on carrying dead weight like [six-term Mississippi Sen.] Thad Cochran and [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell," Cuccinelli told Joe Concha, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show," on Wednesday on
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"Matt Bevin — who Mitch McConnell slaughtered in their primary, beat him soundly — holds better against [Kentucky Secretary of State] Alison Grimes. [Retired Air Force Col.] Rob Maness in Louisiana polls better against [Democratic Sen.] Mary Landrieu than [Rep.] Bill Cassidy does.
"Yet, the Republican Party is spending enormous sums of money to support these people, who are about not believing anything. And that is the core of our problem."
The 45-year-old Republican — who lost the race for Virginia governor to Democrat Terry McAuliffe in November, after four years as attorney general and eight years in the Senate — believes Democrats, fueled by liberals, have more fire in the belly.
"They're wrong on most things, but they believe something. The establishment on our side is adamant about not believing anything," Cuccinelli said.
"You can't stand for anything, you can't win that way. In fact, you can't win without it. If there isn't a reason to fight, the people won't fight and they won't show up."
Cuccinelli says Republicans must run as conservatives and promote conservative values to win.
"In my entire lifetime at the presidential level, 100 percent of Republican nominees who ran as conservatives won and 100 percent of Republican nominees who ran not as conservative — [Mitt] Romney and [John] McCain, they both did that — have all lost," he said.
"How much clearer numbers do you need than 100 percent?"
Cuccinelli believes there are many true conservatives available to seek the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
"There's a whole tier of them. This is going to be the best field of Republican candidate in a presidential field since [Ronald] Reagan was in the field. That's very encouraging," he said.
"[Sens.] Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and [Gov.] Scott Walker. There's a slew of folks who have track records standing by their principles. We can all have a complaint with each of them, but I haven't yet found a perfect candidate."
"Maybe you don't run conservatives in Oregon, but surely if you want to win and Senate races are national races, you should be able to be a cohesive team behind the core set of principles. Mitch McConnell and his leadership are adamant about not supporting anything principled that you can name. That's what's depressing Republican donors, Republican activists and in polling it's depressing Republican numbers."
Cuccinelli believes Democrats have been able to outraise Republicans because the Obama administration, [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid, [Sen.] Chuck Schumer and others "have actively used the levers of power to tyrannically scare off donors."
That includes having the IRS targeting conservative groups that seek tax-exempt status, a scandal that is now the subject of federal investigations.
"The reality is a lot of donors say this is awful, terrible, but you know I don't want to be the one to fight it and I don't want the headache. To a certain degree, that has worked," he said.
Asked whether he is mulling another run in the future Cuccinelli is clear.
"After 12 years of running of running as a down-the-line conservative and fighting for our principles — which I'm perfectly proud to have done — it is awfully nice to just live a normal life, to coach my six-year-old son's soccer team, to go to the five-year-old's soccer camp and to work a number of different jobs, including practicing law," he said.
"I don't really have any current plans to run again and I may never run again. I may just keep fighting for these principles on the outside.
"We'll see where life takes us and what God's got in mind for us, but for now we're making the most of the benefit of losing and still fighting for conservative principles and hoping the Republican Party comes around to realize what a valuable winning tool they could be."
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