This afternoon, Virginia state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign for governor filed its end-of-year finance report with the State Board of Elections, covering the last six months of 2012.

Total contributions: $1,074,097

Cash on hand: $1,178,624.57

Number of individual contributions: 4,383

Number of contributions under $100: 3,021

Statement from Ken Cuccinelli:

As we enter 2013, I continue to focus on the issues that matter most to the Commonwealth — creating new jobs, growing our economy, and expanding economic opportunity for all Virginians. These are the issues that I have worked hard to defend as Attorney General and will continue to advance in the years ahead. The broad base of support that I have received so far is reflective of the investment thousands of Virginians have made in my campaign. I want to take this opportunity to thank them all for their continued support. My campaigns have always relied on local Virginians to propel us to victory. My campaign for governor is no exception.

Here’s the problem for Cuccinelli:  His Democratic opponent, former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, stands as one of the all-time great political fundraisers. Four years ago, McAuliffe spent a whopping $68.25 for each of his 84,640 votes in Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, or $5,776,922.

Well, that was an easy primary:

The deadline to file to run for governor in Virginia as a Republican was 5 p.m. today. State attorney general Ken Cuccinelli is the only candidate to file.

Republican Governors Association spokesman Mike Schrimpf issued the following statement:

With the nomination secured, Ken Cuccinelli is now able to move forward, focused on the pocketbook issues Virginians care about. Ken understands middle-class values, and throughout his time in public service, he has always been a guardian of the taxpayers’ money and has a record of working to make sure Virginia is a great place to live, work and raise a family.

Meanwhile, former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe has spent the last two decades raising money for national Democrats and showing no interest in Virginia issues until running for governor. For twenty years, Chairman McAuliffe’s priorities have been raising money, defeating his opponents at all costs and self-promotion. Those aren’t the values Virginians are looking for in their next governor.

Ken Cuccinelli is the only candidate who understands the issues and can be trusted to be Virginia’s next governor.

After Democrats spent a presidential campaign cycle demonizing Mitt Romney as a ruthless, profit-obsessed capitalist, they must now turn around and argue that Terry McAuliffe’s experience in the private sector demonstrates why he should be Virginia’s next governor.

This report by Ryan Nobles, a reporter in the Richmond, Va., NBC affiliate, is likely to complicate the McAuliffe narrative:

Yesterday we outlined at length Terry McAuliffe’s explanation as to why he chose to open a manufacturing plant for his Green Car company in Mississippi instead of here in Virginia. The plant opened to great fanfare in July and was helping to establish McAuliffe’s credentials as a businessman willing to invest in green technology as a long term economic solution.

But for McAuliffe, who purchased the Chinese company shortly after losing the democratic primary for governor in 2009, the fact that the plant and its potential one thousand jobs ended up in Mississippi was a mystery. Especially because McAuliffe never really stopped running for governor. He touted this week that he has attended some 2,400 political events in Virginia over the past four years.

On Wednesday McAuliffe claimed that the reason he went to the deep south instead of the Commonwealth was because the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) passed on his company’s incentive application.

“VEDP decided they didn’t want to bid on it,” he said.

According to a spokeswoman from VEDP, the agency never officially was given the opportunity to bid or not bid on his project.

“We did not receive enough information to respond to GreenTech’s business proposal that was received in 2009,” said Suzane West, the Communications Manager for VEDP.

West said VEDP could not give specifics on what information was not provided, but according to Marianne McInerney, the Executive Vice President of sales at GreenTech, the company decided to forgo the final steps of the application process because it was made clear to them in meetings with VEDP that the proposal would be unsuccessful. This was after a significant amount of time and energy was dedicated to the project.

Not a surprise, but somewhat newsworthy anyway:

Former 5th District Congressman Tom Perriello says he is not running for Governor of Virginia. Perriello released a statement today on Twitter saying he won’t be on the ballot in 2013, but he will be in the fight. His statement goes further to say that he does not feel that call to serve in elected office right now. Perriello would have been running against Terry McAuliffe for the Democratic nomination, who he is now backing.

Perhaps McAuliffe will break out the Bacardi rum in celebration, as he did so jovially after the Puerto Rico Democratic primary in 2008:

I suppose the slogan “live like you mean it“; indeed fits the style of the McAuliffe campaign. Of course, a general-election fight against Ken Cuccinelli is a sobering prospect.

The lesson of today’s Morning Jolt is that campaign news never really stops . . .

Could She Who Scoffed at Red Sox Fans Be Back?

Oh please, oh please . . .

She is the woman who couldn’t beat Scott Brown, but now she’s the Democrats’ best hope to keep the governor’s office in 2014.

Don’t laugh, but that woman is Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Lt. Gov. Tim Murray? Treasurer Steve Grossman? Please. If they’re the best the party can offer, then Republicans might actually have a chance at winning a statewide race again.

Coakley is still scarred from her 2010 Senate defeat, and many Democrats shudder at the thought of her running again. There is a possibility Gov. Deval Patrick could appoint her to U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry’s seat if Kerry gets a Cabinet post, but sources said she’s more interested in succeeding Patrick in the Corner Office.

“That’s what she’s definitely looking at,” one veteran Democratic strategist said.

Now the irony is that I’ve heard Scott Brown is also more interested in being governor of Massachusetts than running for Senate again.

Brown vs. Coakley: The Rematch!

Judging a Booker Poll by Its Cover

It’s early, but . . . maybe the 2009 gubernatorial races aren’t going to be so exciting. In Virginia, we’ll see Ken Cuccinelli as the GOP nominee, since Bill Bolling has suddenly dropped his bid. At this point, it looks like Cuccinelli will be taking on the jovial soul Terry McAuliffe, a former DNC chair who flamed out in a 2009 bid. McAuliffe would be a very, very “northern Virginia” candidate, which may or may not be enough in an off-year election.

Then there’s New Jersey, where everyone thought there was a chance of a clash of the titans, incumbent Republican Chris Christie against Democrat Cory Booker, mayor of Newark. Eh, maybe not so much:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker remains the wild card, with political observers believing he is the Democrat with the best chance of ousting Christie. He didn’t respond to an interview request and his Twitter account was silent on political matters.

Booker fares best among Democrats against Christie in head-to-head tests in a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll but still would get thumped by Christie, 53 percent to 34 percent, if the election took place now.

The poll also shows 59 percent of New Jersey voters support a second term for Christie, with 32 percent opposing. Support for Christie’s re-election has risen dramatically since before Sandy, said David Red­lawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and a professor of political science at Rutgers.

The sequence could scare off Booker, Red­lawsk said. “Any Democrat, even Booker, has to take these numbers seriously. At the same time Booker remains the Democrat who would seem to have the best chance in the early running.”

Liz Marlantes of the Christian Science Monitor looks at some recent examples of governors who had their popularity changed by hurricanes:

. . . the goodwill Christie amassed in the weeks immediately following the storm shouldn’t be underestimated, either. A perhaps more relevant comparison is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — who, interestingly, seems to be pondering a 2016 run himself. Bush was widely praised by Democrats and Republicans alike for his handling of a series of hurricanes that battered the Sunshine State in 2004 and 2005. The St. Petersburg Times dubbed him “The Hurricane Governor” in a laudatory profile that quoted Democratic strategists who’d worked for his opponent as saying he’d been “a superb leader.” Two years later, Bush left office with a nearly 60 percent approval rating.

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that Bush’s predecessor, former Florida governor Lawton Chiles, was roundly criticized in the wake of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew — with his approval rating in the state going all the way down to a dismal 22 percent. Two years later he won reelection, anyway.

In what is undoubtedly the same kind of buzz that got President Jon Huntsman where he is today, the New Yorker is suddenly writing gushing profiles that talk about Christie’s presidential potential:

As a launching pad for Christie’s 2013 reëlection campaign, all of this could hardly be better, and it also provides him with a ready route to 2016. If he wins next year, which seems likely, he can continue the process of rebuilding the areas battered by Sandy and push through more reforms, while quietly constructing the political operation and campaign chest he needed for a run in 2016. Here, too, being from Jersey is an advantage. The national media and the moneymen are just across the river. (Having been unsuccessfully prevailed upon to run in 2012 by a group of super-rich Republicans, including Rupert Murdoch and Wilbur Ross, Christie shouldn’t have much trouble raising cash.)

Ahem. That was before he was seen as the guy who spent the final weeks before Election Day doing more to restore Obama’s brand as a bipartisan healer more than anyone else this side of Richard Lugar. Some of those GOP moneymen are going to be a little grumpy if Christie calls in the near future, I suspect. They continue:

Small wonder, then, that Christie is widely regarded as one of the front-runners for the G.O.P. nomination in 2016. But before he can be seen as a wholly viable candidate, he still has some issues to resolve, including his record as U.S. Attorney, his political identity inside the Republican Party, and his health.

That last item is a legitimate concern, although clearly Christie has managed to be an effective governor with his weight issues. Perhaps the biggest indicator of his ambitions after 2013 will be his waistline.

You know how we know our political world has gone off the rails?

The good folks at the Republican Party of Virginia* send me an e-mailed press release, with the headline, “Embarrassing: Failed Democratic Candidate Attacks Governor on Job Creation.”

My first thought was they were referring to Scott Lee Cohen attacking Governor Pat Quinn.

Scott Lee Cohen, the pawnbroker who flamed out of Illinois politics just days after voters nominated him as the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate, is making plans to run for governor.

Cohen would have a steep climb to redefine himself in the eyes of Illinois voters, even by the standards of this state’s tainted political culture. During his primary campaign, the 43-year-old political novice ran on notions of integrity and business acumen. But scrutiny of Cohen’s background after the election revealed troubling facts and false statements.

The most salacious revelation surrounded his 2005 domestic battery arrest, in which his convicted prostitute girlfriend alleged he put a knife to her throat. The case was dropped when she didn’t show up in court, but in explaining his side of the story, Cohen made statements that turned out to be false. He said he had met the woman in a bar, but later acknowledged that he met her when he was a patron at the massage parlor where she was arrested for performing sex acts for money. Cohen also said the woman would vouch for his character, but she issued a statement through a lawyer saying he was not fit to hold office.

But instead they were talking about our old friend Terry McAuliffe.

McAuliffe says the new governor, who just marked his 100th day in office, isn’t making it any easier to attract new jobs to the state by getting bogged down in controversies over his Confederate heritage proclamation and resisting legal anti-bias protections for gay Virginians.

Of course, on McDonnell’s 101st day, Northup Grumman moved its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to northern Virginia.

UPDATE: The release was from the Republican Party of Virginia, not the Republican Governors Association; I initially misread the three-letter-acronym starting with “R.”