Cuccinelli, left, has worked to put some daylight between himself and Jackson. Jackson: No daylight with Cuccinelli

E.W. Jackson, the GOP lieutenant governor candidate in Virginia who’s made headlines since his selection earlier this month, said in a radio interview Friday that he and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli see eye-to-eye on the issues.

“Look, we are in fundamental agreement,” Jackson said, when asked on the radio station WMAL whether he and Cuccinelli would “run as a pair.” “I’ve heard that this ticket is probably more homogeneous than almost any ticket in the history of Virginia, so there’s no stark disagreement between us.”


He went on to note, however, that Virginia elects each position individually and the two men will campaign on their own.

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“There may be some nuances here and there, and I don’t think we’ll be afraid to express those,” he said. “But we’ve got to run individually, as you know each candidate gets elected in a sense on his own, so we will be doing a little bit of both.”

Jackson, the pastor and lawyer chosen for the nomination by delegates at the Virginia GOP convention in mid-May, quickly came under fire for controversial comments he’d made on race, gay issues and abortion. Democrats have used his nomination as a way to bring the GOP candidates’ positions on social issues to the forefront in the campaign.

Cuccinelli has worked to put some daylight between himself and Jackson since Jackson was chosen for the GOP ticket. Following the revelations about Jackson’s past statements, Cuccinelli said he would not defend his running mate’s remarks and that voters should evaluate each candidate “on an individual basis.”

“I am just not going to defend my running mates’ statements at every turn,” he said. “They’ve got to explain those themselves. Part of this process is just letting Virginia voters get comfortable with us, on an individual basis, personally.”