Ken Cuccinelli, one of Virginia’s most conservative legislators, has been elected attorney general.
Unofficial returns show the Republican state senator from Fairfax County defeated Democratic Del. Steve Shannon of Fairfax in Tuesday’s election.
Cuccinelli has served in the Senate since 2002. He has been a leading opponent of abortion rights, gun control, tax increases and same-sex unions. In his campaign, however, he mostly avoided social issues and emphasized his broad range of experience as a private attorney and his early call for a special legislative session to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that jeopardized drunken driving and drug prosecutions.
