UPDATE: Cuccinelli responds to Brownlee below.

Today the John Brownlee for Attorney General campaign’s “The Brownlee Report” dictated that Brownlee was leading the fight to curb illegal workers in Virginia. How’s that?

In response to a question regarding illegal aliens and undocumented workers, John Brownlee said he strongly supports “the use of the U.S. government’s E-Verify system.” Brownlee supports making the use of E-Verify mandatory for all employers in the Commonwealth, including the state government, in an effort to reduce the number of illegal aliens in Virginia. E-Verify is a proven and effective resource for employers to verify citizenship / residency status and screen out illegals who are seeking employment.

In a response to the same question, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli said he opposed requiring private employers to use E-Verify, suggesting the system was too flawed to be reliable.

How do their stances measure up to other states in this fine nation?

Currently, three states – Mississippi, South Carolina and Arizona – require all employers to use the E-Verify system. Seven more states require state agencies and government contractors to use the system, and two other states (including neighboring North Carolina) require all government agencies to use it. Legislation requiring the use of E-Verify is under consideration by four other states, and as of July 1, all federal government contractors and subcontractors will be required to E-Verify their newly hired workers.

Nine states agree with Cuccinelli’s assessment as opposed to three following Brownlee’s take.

During a time of economic crisis and increasing burdens on private businesses to pay their bills and put food on the table of their owners and employees, John Brownlee feels the power of government should be to create a greater financial burden on said businesses. And to what end?

Brownlee added that by implementing E-Verify and reducing the number of illegals coming to Virginia, both businesses and taxpayers will save money and reduce costs.

By increasing the burden of government on businesses and the people you can decrease the burden of people on government.

Isn’t that a little backwards for a Conservative to argue?

Isn’t the more Conservative argument to limit the size of government so it is a less burden on the people?

Does E-Verify reduce the costs by preventing the government from spending thousands upon thousands of dollars busting up small businesses to ensure they are using an electronic surveillance system to track citizens… er, ILLEGAL ALIENS?

Is Brownlee taking the Bloomburg approach on small businesses?

We already know from the AG debate at the advance that Brownlee’s in favor of price controls.

What else does the government get to check?

This isn’t leading the fight against illegal immigration. It’s leading the fight against small businesses, entrepeneurship and limited government.

Brownlee’s full text available after the cut.

4/28 UPDATE: Ken Cuccinelli responds to Brownlee’s accusations:

For the record – I do not oppose any effort to verify the status of someone’s legal residency. Unlike John Brownlee, I have a proven record in the State Senate opposing illegal immigration. No where in my comments did I say I opposed E-Verify. But don’t believe me – long time party activist, VFRW member and party leader Helen Blackwell was there – and this is what she said:

“No where in Ken’s comments Saturday did he say he opposed E-Verify. In fact, he recited his record supporting E-Verify in the State Senate. Ken said that they have not yet been able to get E-Verify out of Committee in the State Senate, and he suggested that an approach he would support would be to have the state government go first, then require private employers to use E-Verify. Ken said generally that he believes that the government should first impose requirements on itself before imposing those requirements on business.”

Amazingly, John Brownlee’s lack of research has missed an important point. Working with then Attorney General Bob McDonnell, I actually PASSED legislation REQUIRING that all state government contractors hire only legal residents of the United States and for the first time, giving the Commonwealth the ability to FIRE contractors not in compliance. As simple and straight forward as that sounds – this was an enormously difficult bill to pass in the Senate. John didn’t mention that in his email. Another case of false rhetoric versus the actual record.

Cuccinelli’s full response is after Brownlee’s full text.

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How can you run to the right of someone in a primary and at the same time claim that other individual is too far right to win statewide?

Does this make sense to anyone?

UPDATE: I know there’s the usual “say one thing to appeal to the base in a primary and say another thing to appeal to the general electorate” mentality, but that assumes that:

1. Your base is stupid
2. The general electorate is stupid
3. Both will support you anyway despite your lying

If you’re counting on any of these three, well, can’t say I respect that one bit…

Back on the 15th the John Brownlee for Attorney General campaign put out a press release that his campaign out raised Ken Cuccinelli‘s in the quarter. Certainly the overall numbers speak for themselves (Brownlee – Cuccinelli) but looking deeper into Brownlee’s numbers something really stands out.

The largest contribution to the John Brownlee campaign was $25,000 (nearly a QUARTER of his total income) from R. Ted Weschler. I don’t know Mr. Weschler’s roots, but I can see how he’s contributed in the past and that has me a little concerned for the Brownlee campaign:

$20,000 to Mark Warner’s One Virginia PAC

$20,000 to Tim Kaine’s Moving Virginia Forward PAC

$20,000 to Tim Kaine for Governor

$500 to Warner for Governor

And perhaps quite notable to Conservatives:

$12,500 to Virginian’s For Responsible Government

Virginians for Responsible Government was set up in 2002 by a group of business leaders to defend the Senate “Gang of Five” Republicans — Chichester, Norment, Stolle, Stosch and Wampler — from intraparty challenge from conservatives.

Brownlee has shown his concern for questions of his conservative credentials (see BD: Brownlee takes exception to Kenney comments). Given his lack of a legislative record, there are going to be many more questions and people are going to look at things like donors for answers.

This is not a very good answer to Conservatives.

UPDATE: D.J. McGuire has another find in Weschler’s contributions:

One of Weschler’s “Republican” recipients (to the tune of $19,500) was James C. Wheat, a 2007 candidate for Delegate in Henrico County who endorsed Kaine (Elephant Ears) and has since endorsed Mark Warner (Lynchubrg News and Advance).  So Weschler’s $60K to Democrats looks a lot more like $80K.