Cuccinelli Launches Campaign For AG, Immediately Breaks The Law
By: PeterFeddo
Published On: 3/31/2008 8:32:25 PM
Today State Senator Ken Cuccinelli launches his campaign for the 2009 Republican AG nomination and in a shocking move, violates state law with his campaign website. Misdemeanor Cuccinelli took the seal of the commonwealth, a seal reserved exclusively for the official business of Virginia and loaded it onto the header of his campaign website.
The Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth's website clearly states:
Section 1-505 of the Code of Virginia provides that the seals of the Commonwealth are deemed the property of the Commonwealth; and no persons shall exhibit, display, or in any manner utilize the seals or any facsimile or representation of the seals of the Commonwealth for nongovernmental purposes unless such use is specifically authorized.
As an elected official Cuccinelli should know by now that you are not allowed to stamp unofficial and especially campaign materials with the Seal of the Commonwealth. It's a sign of inexperience or poor judgement to slap an image onto a website without the authority of its owner. Cuccinelli is a patent attorney he deals with copyright, trademark and technical law all day long, doesn't he know this?
Some might say "well the state seal is on the state flag, can't he use it on his website? It's in the public domain for crying out loud!" Yes, the state flag has the Seal of the Commonwealth and if he wanted to show his Virginia credentials he should have displayed a representation of the Virginia flag. This rendering displays the seal on a red background obviously not a legal implementation of the seal from a flag based image.
As a citizen of Virginia I call on Sen. Cuccinelli to remove the official seal of Virginia as soon as possible. If he continues this campaign illegally utilizing the commonwealth's property I should hope the Commonwealth's Attorney of Fairfax County launches an investigation.
UPDATE 8:45: I just spotted a document on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website noting: 9. The Seals shall not be used in any matter that might resonably be considered as being for a political purpose.
UPDATE 1:24 AM:Cuccinelli caves to Democratic bloggers demanding he comply with the law.
Comments
Somebody needs to... (elevandoski - 3/31/2008 11:21:42 PM)
bring the entire transcript of the John Grigsby v. Bob Kelly (Loudoun) where the Cooch represented Grigsby and lost. I've never seen a shittier lawyer than Ken Cuccinelli who totally bungled the case. What an airhead! And Grigsby perjured himself multiple times and Cuccinelli knew it. Yeah, right! That's what Virginia needs in an Attorney General.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Not that I'm one to defend Ken Cuccinelli (Lowell - 4/1/2008 11:05:57 AM)
but isn't it ok to put the flag on your campaign lit? I mean, check out the "W" bumper stickers from 2004, the ones with the flag coming out the right side of the "W." Seems to me that politicians use flags all the time...
Flag not seal (legacyofmarshall - 4/2/2008 6:39:04 PM)
That was the US Flag, a lot of politicians use that, and I'm guessing they're not allowed to use the Seal of the President - that would be about the difference on the federal level.
Cooch Updated (PeterFeddo - 4/1/2008 1:16:13 PM)
Per my note at 1:24 am, they updated their site with a state flag. It is okay to use the state flag on campaign literature but you can't use the seal as a standalone element. The seal by itself is reserved for government usage.
Jerk (Vrn84 - 4/2/2008 2:18:19 PM)
I worked in the Va capital last year, and whenever I had to go to Cuccinellis office, he was the biggest jerk ever. Seems like he has a inflated self-righteous attitude about him. I def hope he doesnt become our AG.