Cuccinelli PAC to host webcast on health-care suit

More than 1,000 people have signed up to listen in to a webcast hosted next week by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) to talk about his lawsuit against the federal health-care law, Cuccinelli political director Noah Wall said today.

Wall said the event, modeled on a 2003 summit Cuccinelli held as a state senator to talk about ways to fund transportation improvements without tax increases, was likely to be the first of a series of Cuccinelli-hosted outings designed to let the controversial attorney general explain his positions in his own words. The hour-long June 16 event, which begins at 8 p.m., will feature live, streaming video of Cuccinelli answering questions e-mailed from participating viewers about the suit, in which he argued that the new law is unconstitutional.

"He's always been the kind of person who wants to talk directly to the people who elected him, not just to his supporters but to people who are interested in the political process," Wall said. "We're trying to show what Ken is doing and why."

Make no mistake however -- this is a political event. It's been paid for by Cuccinelli's political action committee and advertised on his political Web site, not the Web site of the office of the attorney general.

It will be advertised through the Republican Party of Virginia and other partisan outlets. E-mail addresses for those who RSVP will be added to a list of constituents who have particular interest in the health-care issue, Wall said. And while there are no current plans to use that list for fundraising, he said, it might be used that way in the future.

But Wall added that there are no plans to screen interested participants, and Cuccinelli will likely field questions from those who disagree with his suit. "As long as they're civil, Ken would be happy to answer them," Wall said. "This is not just to reach out to supporters. It's to reach out to people who are concerned with this issue -- and there are people concerned with this issue on both sides."

But he added that the target audiences are "supporters" and "undecided people we have any realistic chance of bringing into the fold."