Difficult to conpare Romney vs. Cuccinelli because millions of 2012 voters didn't go to thr polls a week ago.
That's true, but the electorate last Tuesday was only 2% less diverse and 2% less Dem than the Obama 2012 electorate. And McAuliffe finished... 2% behind Obama!
So the more diverse presidential electorate is a factor. And G.W. Bush has shown that enough minority voters will give an populist SoCon R a second look. Although that needle gets harder to thread every year. It's worth noting, however that the Evangelical numbers are even more unanimous for the GOP now than they were for Bush. A lot of people suspected Romney would have an Evangelical problem. Instead, they broke stronger for him than Bush!