There were a few stories on Monday about Terry McAuliffe’s new political action committee, the innocently named “Common Good VA” PAC.
Not much new to see or gripe about here. Virginia politicians create PACs all the time.
What did not make it into the news reports, though, is the second email McAuliffe’s staff sent to a list of high dollar donors regarding the new PAC. And it’s a whopper. Paul Goldman and I wrote it up for the WaPo, Here’s a snip:
…we were stunned to learn Gov. Terry McAuliffe is now offering a package of special gubernatorial privileges to those willing to write a $100,000 check to his new political action committee, Common Good VA. According to an e-mail from those soliciting the money, this cash gets you special access to McAuliffe and the governor’s policy advisers.
We predicted this very dodge in an earlier post pointing out that the much-ballyhooed “ethical reforms” from our leaders didn’t cover political action committees. Do these $100,000 donors get a discount if the budget stalemate isn’t resolved by the time of their first gubernatorial dinner reception, which is scheduled for the Spring?
Here is a copy of the email:
McAuliffe PAC Announcement for High Dollar Donors
It’s brazen, brash and yes it’s also classic McAuliffe — putting a price tag on access.
But this is also a catastrophic blunder.
In just three emailed pages, McAuliffe’s new fundraising toy succeeds in bringing back everything Republicans (and Democrats) said was wrong with him. Everything has a price, and here’s the list. Businessman? Problem solver? Nope. Straight-up hustler.
If Republicans are smart, they will find a way to use this in their struggle with McAuliffe over Medicaid expansion. TMac doesn’t care about health care, the poor, and anything of the sort. He’s all about the money. For himself.
And a genuinely shrewd politician would use this to call for a real ethics reform bill, as opposed to that paper tiger the General Assembly birthed earlier in the year. Nothing McAuliffe proposes here is illegal — though it does offer, as Paul and I write, a helping hand to former Gov. Bob McDonnell in his fight with the feds.
But Paul and I also write:
With all due respect to the new governor and his aides, the McDonnell indictment should have been a wake-up call on the need for genuine ethics reform. Democrats and Republicans promised the real deal last year. This is it?
We shall see whether the General Assembly decides to do anything with this latest example of public graft. I tend to doubt it, because tightening up on PACs hits awfully close to home and wallet.
Until then, McAuliffe has shot himself in the foot. The only question is whether the wound is politically fatal.
