Update: Gillespie’s new ad “Changed”
Update (7 p.m.): I appeared on WVEC-13 in Norfolk to talk about the Gillespie ad pull and new ad buy…
Yesterday, Norm postulated that the momentary pause from the Gillespie campaign on advertising was related to re-tooling their ads for the stretch run. All while Mark Warner tries his best to avoid any questions on the subject of dangling judgeships and call center offers to former state Sen. Phil Puckett’s daughter as incentive for dad to remain in the state senate.
What Norm predicted is, indeed, true.
According to the Gillespie campaign, they will be spending $300k dollars in the coming weeks to discuss the “news of the day,” with the possibility of more to follow (likely based on whether donors suddenly become interested).
The AP, Washington Post, and New York Times have well documented that the ad pull was due to financial considerations, but Norm hit a home run in predicting Gillespie would use a good chunk of what’s left of his ad budget to take a little shine off Mark Warner’s image.
The reality is that all across Virginia – editorial boards are questioning Warner’s involvement in the Puckett “job’s program”, as the Roanoke Times calls it:
Now we learn that U.S. Sen. Mark Warner — Mr. Clean himself — also called Puckett and suggested that Ketron might be able to get a job at CGI, a high-tech company that Warner had helped lure to Russell County when he was governor. Or maybe a federal judgeship? It’s important to note that Warner did not offer such a judgeship. There was one available, but he and Sen. Tim Kaine had already submitted their two nominees to the president.
Still, things can happen, you know?
Is any of this illegal? We’d be surprised. (The FBI is investigating, by the way).
But Warner remains silent.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch launches their salvo:
Now comes word (again from The Post) that Virginia Sen. Mark Warner also got involved. Warner called Puckett’s son, Joseph, and over the course of an hour discussed several job possibilities for Puckett’s daughter — including even a federal judgeship, a post for which she would seem underqualified. A spokesman for Warner says the senator simply “brainstormed” with Joseph Puckett.
Really? Is that what they’re calling it these days?
Here’s an interesting question: Did Warner suddenly decide, out of the blue and all by himself, to pick up the phone and call Joseph Puckett, without informing anybody else that he was going to do so? Or did he inform the governor’s people about the call — which would make them complicit in it? Or, for that matter, did someone in McAuliffe’s office reach out and ask Warner to intercede?
The first possibility would seem like an odd thing to do for a senator who has long been thoroughly plugged into the Virginia Democratic machine. And it certainly would be something voters ought to know more about before they vote for (or against) Warner three weeks from now. The third possibility, meanwhile, would suggest that Reagan’s phone call was not an isolated act by an “overzealous” staffer, as he has described it, but part of a coordinated campaign by the governor’s office to buy off a state senator with public employment for his daughter.
Warner and the governor’s office need to come clean about this — pronto.
Has Warner remotely come clean? Hardly. His silence has been deafening.
And The Daily Press continues:
Then, last week, a spokesman confirmed to the Post that Sen. Mark Warner also made contact in the days leading up to Sen. Puckett’s resignation.
According to Joseph Puckett, the senator’s son, Sen. Warner called to discuss a possible federal court appointment or potential corporate position for Ms. Ketron. The court appointment seems particularly onerous since, as the Post reported, she lacks the legal experience that would make her an obvious selection for a lifetime federal appointment.
Again, no formal job offer was made — a point that Sen. Warner’s spokesman Kevin Hall made eagerly — but Sen. Warner did “brainstorm” about the situation with Joseph Puckett.
During a Monday night debate with his Republican challenger Ed Gillespie, Sen. Warner defended his actions by detailing his 20-year relationship with the Puckett family. He later told the Washington Post that he made the call at the behest of the “Democratic Senate leadership and the governor’s office.”
We have unresolved questions about the circumstances which precipitated Sen. Puckett’s resignation.
Unresolved, for sure.
And one would presume those questions will be on full display at tonight’s Christopher Newport University forum. Maybe, then, Senator Warner won’t be able to dodge them.
Bottom-line: Ed Gillespie’s campaign, with $2 million left in the bank at the end of the 3rd quarter reporting period, will use what resources they can to remind voters of these very questions for the next two weeks. Should Warner remain silent, his silence will only make those questions louder. With the race in the single digits, anything can happen. And even Larry Sabato thinks Warner has a problem. Then again, is Ed Gillespie prepared to empty the tank?
