There’s going to be a fundraiser for Terry McAuliffe in Roanoke at the Tanglewood Holiday Inn today. Not a terribly newsworthy event in itself, as candidates have such events all the time. But there is always a little something extra whenever Terry McAuliffe is involved, and the Roanoke event gives us the opportunity to recall when he dangled the possibility of bringing Greentech — his former car company — to the Star City.
Let’s go the tape:
If you couldn’t quite follow the audio, here’s what McAuliffe said (emphasis added):
McAULIFFE: “Biggest advantage, you may or may not know, I went out and started – raised about a half a billion dollars. I am chairman of a company called GreenTech Automotive. We’re building five vehicles: three hybrids, two electrics. My first car will roll off -I bought, one company I bought from China, nobody’s ever done this but I went over and bought their manufacturing company and I moved it to America. I got my first plant, Tunica, Mississippi. I wanted to put it in Virginia but of course we didn’t bid on it. I talked about running for Governor you gotta bid on projects to get them to come, but about a thousand people down there and my first car will roll out on July 4. And I’m selling my first cars, bought in China, made by Americans, back to China on July 4 I’ll sell the first thing back and then I’m about to announce in September my big facility which will be about five thousand people. I’m hoping to bring it to Virginia, love to bring it to Roanoke but at the end of the day gotta be offered some incentives, you know, as I say I got a fiduciary responsibility with my investors. It’s exciting, but I’m doing electric cars and hybrids and bio mass and all this stuff, you know, I ran a campaign for governor and I said I’m gonna run on big ideas and if you don’t like them, don’t vote for me, and you didn’t. (Laughter). I had a great time doing it. But it’s exciting. But, you know it’s all about jobs, all about economic activity, and – ”
ROANOKE MAYOR DAVID BOWERS: “When you get to that point with the bid process, please contact us. We wanna make, see what our best offer is. We want to put it on the table.”
McAULIFFE: “Great. Yeah. Well, you got a great area, great education system and congrats what you’ve done here in bringing more money for education. I know it was a tough deal. At the end of the day you’ve got a good workforce, good education that will bring jobs… and a little incentive package. (Laughter). Okay, great to see everybody. Great to be back, greatest city in Virginia right here.”
Those who’ve followed the GreenTech story know why Virginia decided to pass on giving McAuliffe a package of taxpayers goodies. The deal stunk to high heaven. And as recent television reports have made clear, GreenTech’s Mississippi base of operations looks more like a Potemkin village than a thriving manufacturing facility.
Roanoke taxpayers should be thankful, then, that Mr. Bower’s unctuous offer went nowhere.
There’s little likelihood McAuliffe’s off-hand GreenTech pitch will be mentioned at today’s fundraiser. Perhaps someone will ask council member Anita Price, who was at that 2011 meeting and is a member of the host committee for today’s event, or Mary Bowers, wife of Roanoke’s mayor and an officer of the host group, the Roanoke Valley Democratic Women, just how serious Roanoke’s leaders were about making Terry an offer.
