… No matter what, Cuccinelli was relatively competitive in race where everything went wrong. He was decidedly outspent. His party never unified around his candidacy and a libertarian candidate was there to take advantage. The government shutdown probably didn’t help. And, of course, Cuccinneli was a pretty flawed candidate in his own right, and that was before he was bedeviled by ethics challenges (including those that weren’t his own). Cuccinelli had no business being in the race, and yet the margin is quite close. …
But although Republicans should be kicking themselves about blowing yet another competitive states, the fact that the race was so close should leave them feeling relatively confident heading into 2014–their own record of political malpractice notwithstanding. CONT.
Nate Cohn, New Republic