The television-ad portion of the campaign will be officially up and running starting this Monday; there will certainly be many more between now and what’s shaping up to be a close Virginia gubernatorial race this November, but I’m thinking that this is probably a pretty darn good start for Cuccinelli’s campaign. The McAuliffe Democrats are predictably trying to brand Cuccinelli as The Most Socially Conservative, War on Women-waging, Bigoted, Outside-the-Mainstream, Todd-Akinesque Extremist Evah, and this ad kind of says, “Okay, you want to talk social issues? Let’s talk social issues, because I will beat you in a Most-Compassionate contest all. day. long.”

“I’m Teiro Cuccinelli. My husband Ken has spent his life standing up for the vulnerable and those in need. He’s worked the night shift at a homeless shelter, spent his college days leading efforts to prevent sexual assaults, and represented those suffering from mental illness. As Attorney General, Ken fought to find and prosecute child predators and human traffickers. Virginia deserves a governor who is experienced, principled, and honest. I think you’ll find that’s what Ken Cuccinelli is all about.”

Having his wife do the talking on his behalf is a nice softener to his hardass-conservative image, and spending your career fighting sexual assault/human trafficking/child predators is definitely nothing to sneeze at. Virginia’s purplish voters are still fairly unfamiliar with both of the candidates, and given the all but guaranteed nature of the Democrats’ forthcoming ideological, ‘extremist’ attacks, this looks like a pretty solid way to get out in front of them.