Even if Democrat Terry McAuliffe wins today’s Virginia
governor’s race, the
generally Democrat-friendly Mother Jones will be
disappointed. Reporter Stephanie Mencimer has covered him since
the 1990s and she is:
dumbfounded that he (according to the polls) is poised to
become the next governor of Virginia.
Allow me to explain. McAuliffe represents an unseemly slice
of Washington. His primary role in politics for the past two
decades or more has been raising money—most notably, for the
Clintons. He cooked up the idea of essentially renting out the
Lincoln bedroom during the Clinton administration as a fundraising
vehicle, and he smashed all previous presidential fundraising
records in the process. When McAuliffe was the Dems’ top
fundraiser, a campaign finance scandal besieged the Clinton White
House. Coincidence? No. McAuliffe was all about pushing the
envelope when it came to the political money-chase.That alone might not be enough to render him a distasteful
political candidate. What’s diff#mce_temp_url#erent
about McAuliffe is his brazen mixing of his campaign
fundraising activity and attempts to enrich himself
personally. Many of McAuliffe’s business deals
have come about due to his place in the political cosmos, not
because he possesses a wealth of business skill. That tangled
history has linked him to a long list of unsavory
characters.
The rest of the story details many of those specific unsavory
associations.
In other Virginia race news, revisit various Reason
pieces examining surprisingly high-polling Libertarian candidate
Robert Sarvis, including hopes that he can cause permanent breaks
in Virginia’s crummily choiceless party system from
Ronald Bailey and
Skip Oliva, Nick Gillespie’s
stirring defense of Sarvis from accusations of allegedly
stealing votes from a somehow worthwhile Republican, my
interview with Sarvis from last month, and Scott Shackford on
polls indicating
that if he’s “stealing” votes from anyone, it’s McAuliffe, not
GOPer Ken Cuccinelli.
That alone might not be enough to render him a distasteful
political candidate. What’s different about McAuliffe is
his brazen mixing of his campaign fundraising activity and attempts
to enrich himself
personally. Many of McAuliffe’s business deals
have come about due to his place in the political cosmos, not
because he possesses a wealth of business skill. That tangled
history has linked him to a long list of unsavory
characters.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/05/virginia-governors-election-today-mother
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