By Peter Galuszka
It’s hard to have your ego dunned.
Yet it’s happened to Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who, according to the Quinnipiac University, lost five points in a popular poll thanks to his disastrous 2012 General Assembly session that brought the arrests of pro-abortion rights protestors on Capitol ground and a spate of national Bronx cheers on the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live.
McDonnell, anxious to get a VP bid, is paying $400,000 from fat cat political honchos for a series of television ads that are intended to set things right. We’ll see just how “positive” the Virginia is that Bob has developed. Presumably, we’ll see the other good things he has done, such as create jobs and manage our budget responsibly.
Never mind that a lot of those jobs come from Good Ole Uncle Sam who conservatives despise and that much of the budget progress is smoke and mirrors by withdrawing from one fund and putting it in another.
Even state Republicans who should be happy that one of their own is itching for such a high national profile and muttering that they sure could use that $400,000 in various and critically important political races this fall, according to The Washington Post.
Yet some folks, somewhere believe it is really important to make Bob look good just now.
Who are they? Let’s take a look. The $400K is coming from the Opportunity Virginia fund, a PAC for Bob. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, the fund isn’t exactly made up of little people tossing int heir dear dimes and dollars. It is fat cat money.
Some $25,000 comes from John A. Luke Jr., head of MeadWestvaco which recently relocated its headquarters from the Northeast to Richmond. Luke is so arrogant that he refuses to talk to the news media at all. He is former head of the National Manufacturers Association. Another is G. Gilmer Minor, powerman at a firm that distributes health goods in Richmond.
A few of other names at Opportunity Virginia likewise stick out. Smithfield Foods, which has had a lot of environmental issues over the years with its hog operations, gave $25,000. Wal-Mart, now in the middle of a huge bribery scandal in Mexico, gave $25,000. Lastly, Baxter F. Phillips Jr., an executive at coal producer Alpha Natural Resources in Bristol, gave $10,000. Phillips had been CEO of the notorious Massey Energy firm after renegade CEO Don Blankenship was forced to retire in Dec, 2010 and then the firm was acquired by Alpha. Phillips served in top positions for years at Massey, which has been skewered for the way it ran Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, W.Va. in April 2010 and where 29 miners were killed in a blast that formal reports blame on Massey’s horrendous management.
So as Bob garnishes his image at the expense of his party, it might be worth remembering who is paying for the upbeat TV ads.
