The Ed Gillespie for Governor campaign has released their first YouTube ad of their campaign against Ralph Northam titled “Don’t Get Fooled Again.”
The video is based on recent news that the state of Mississippi is prepared to sue GreenTech, the company that then-CEO Terry McAuiliffe promised would bring a thousand jobs to the state, but resulted in millions of dollars in losses.
From the Washington Free-Beacon [1]:
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D.) former electric car company has been audited to repay $6.4 million of public funds to the state of Mississippi.
GreenTech Automotive, which McAuliffe left in 2012, was unable to deliver on its promise to create jobs in the state of Mississippi, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Now Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering is asking for the full sum of $5 million in public loans, along with interest and recovery costs, to be repaid in full within 30 days. He warned GreenTech CEO Charles Wang that failure to pay could result in the state filing a lawsuit against the company.
The ad prominently features McAuliffe and his pursuits with the Chinese automotive company, but what is also of interest is the mention of Lindenburg Industry, LLC.
This issue has cost Virginia taxpayers. From WRIC [2]:
In 2014, Gov. Terry McAuliffe posed for a photo where he gave a Chinese company known as Lindenburg Industry $1.4 million in grant money. In return, they were supposed to create hundreds of new jobs in an old factory building that had sat empty for years. Eighteen months later, that town is now left asking where are the jobs and where is all that money.
So, here’s the real question – this project came before the Virginia Economic Development Partnership – a committee that the lieutenant governor sits on. However, as noted by Gillespie this past December [3], Northam has been woefully absent:
Reform is desperately needed at VEDP, but Governor McAuliffe and Lieutenant Governor Northam had their chance and they blew it. In fact, Lieutenant Governor Northam left early or failed to attend 73 percent of VEDP board meetings before the JLARC report.
McAuliffe failed in Mississippi. And McAuliffe-Northam had the chance to prevent failure in Appomattox. They didn’t.
In other words: “Don’t Get Fooled Again.”