I can imagine... I'm seeing something like it NOW, by McConnell against Bevin, his Tea Party Challenger. And we're 8 months away from the primary!
Judging by the numbers, Tea Party supporters did NOT go Libertarian...
But, many "moderate" Republicans did.. and, a surprisingly high number of Republicans voted for McAulliffe, primarily because, they DID NOT LIKE Cuccoo.
Those are the tell-tale signs of:
1) A successful media mud slinging campaign, and/or
2) Fraudulent vote counting.
But why did they dislike him? (Although that word is inaccurate when applied to the situation).
Cuccinelli is strongly against raising taxes. Some moderate Republicans saw Terry McAuliffe as the person they could "work" with, deal with, get a piece of the gravy train. I remember a FR thread from months ago which claimed McAuliffe bought off Republican businessmen in the Hampton Roads area. Sure enough, the Repub mayor of Virginia Beach appeared in a campaign ad for McAuliffe.
The Chamber of Commerce spent a million dollars McDonnell four years ago; they didn't give a dime to Cuccinelli.
Eric Cantor's former chief of staff actively assisted the McAuliffe campaign. And Bill Bolling, our SOB of a lieutenant governor, refused to support Cuccinelli....rumor was the he was helping McA.
So, as you see, it had nothing to do with Cuccinelli's fitness as a candidate. As Limbaugh said, Ken is a solid Reagan conservative. But his campaign was swamped by the old Republican boys' network, the lack of support from the RNC, and a whispering campaign started by the leadership of the GOP that he was a dangerous right-wing extremist.