Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli is suing a conservative political action committee that he says raised large amounts of money invoking his name in email solicitations despite giving only a pittance to his actual campaign.

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Alexandria, alleges that an Arlington-based PAC called Conservative StrikeForce raised $2.2 million in 2013, largely by promising donors the money would help Cuccinelli in his ultimately unsuccessful Virginia campaign against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

But federal campaign records show group only gave $10,000 to Cuccinelli.

A lawyer for the PAC says it gave Cuccinelli's campaign everything it netted in its solicitations and that Cuccinelli was simply not popular with donors. He said the vast majority of money raised by the PAC was unrelated to Cuccinelli.