RICHMOND, VA (WTVR) - Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling chided Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in a statement released to the media.
Bolling stated he agreed with the attorney general's decision to delay his quest to change Virginia election.
However the lieutenant governor went on to question Cuccinelli's initial tactics.
“Going forward, I would also encourage Attorney General Cuccinelli to avoid making public statements that criticize our state election laws while his office is defending the State Board of Elections in a lawsuit that has been brought against them by Governor Perry and certain other presidential candidates," Lt. Governor Bolling said in the statement. "I am concerned that such public comments could be used against the Commonwealth in our effort to defend these lawsuits, and I am confident that the Attorney General would not want to do anything that could jeopardize his office’s ability to win this case.” [Click here to read the entire statement]
Some of the Republican presidential candidates who failed to qualify to appear on the ballot for Virginia's Republican Primary in March have filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth.
Initially Cuccinelli said he planned to file emergency legislation to the Virginia General Assembly that would address the issue and help the candidates appear on the ballot. [Read more aboutAttorney General Ken Cuccinelli]
On Sunday, Cuccinelli backtracked from that position.
“A further critical factor that I must consider is that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law - something I am particularly sensitive to as Virginia's attorney general,” Cuccinelli said in the release.
The attorney general said he believed Virginia needed to change the way candidates gained access to the ballot.
"My primary responsibility is to the people of Virginia, and how best to fulfill that responsibility in these particular circumstances has been a very difficult question for me,"Cuccinelli said in the release. "I believe consistency on the part of public officials is an important attribute. And I believe that Virginians are best served by an attorney general who consistently supports the rule of law. That leads to my conclusion that while I will vigorously support efforts to reduce the hurdles to ballot access in Virginia for all candidates, I will not support efforts to apply such changes to the 2012 Presidential election."
Both Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli are Republicans who have announced plans to run for Governor of Virginia in 2013.
