In today’s spend-heavy era of American politics, it’s
admittedly difficult for political candidates to fund their campaigns and their
hopes for elected office without reaching far and wide for political handouts. Perhaps
now more than ever the question becomes, is it appropriate for a political candidate
to take money from groups or individuals that have diametrically opposed
interests to at least a segment of the potential or actual constituency of the
said candidate?
For Virginia’s attorney general, and Republican Party
candidate for Virginia governor, Ken Cuccinelli, the answer has unequivocally been,
“Yes, I’ll take campaign donations just about anyone who offers it.” And so the
plot thickens.
When asked by an attendee of Cuccinelli’s campaign stop at
the Hotel Roanoke on Friday whether or not he felt it was acceptable to take
campaign donations from Consol, Virginia’s
attorney general responded, “Well I need a lot more donations. My opponent
is outspending me like 2:1.” In other words, Cuccinelli’s argument is that he’s
in this ‘contest’ to win, not to necessarily worry about the ethical
implications of his behaviors.
Never one to shy away from pointing the finger or casting
blame, Cuccinelli went on to lament the intense focus voters have had over
Cuccinelli’s ruling in the mineral
rights royalties case that sent a bill passed without opposition in the
General Assembly into the dustbin of legislative history, a bill that would
have sped up mineral royalty payments to Virginia landowners.
According to The
Roanoke Times, “Cuccinelli’s office later intervened to support energy
companies in court when landowners, frustrated by the failure of the bill to
free up royalties, started suing for their royalties.” Indeed, it’s a
complete mystery as to why this issue has received so much attention!
What Cuccinelli essentially did was repudiate the will of
the people (i.e., the Virginia General Assembly) to the clear advantage of
energy companies seeking to extract more energy from Virginia’s landowners
without royalty payments. And this, too, from a candidate who has attempted to
brand himself as a ‘man of the people’.
The problem with Cuccinelli is not so much that he is an
extremist (although this is certainly an issue). The problem with Cuccinelli is
that he can’t be trusted to properly represent the interests of Virginians. As Cuccinelli
hinted at in the quote above, the end is the most important outcome of his
campaign, not the means. But it is the means which define a political candidate
while they are in office, whether they will be beholden to parochial and
adverse special interests, or whether they will be true representatives of the
people who elected them into office.
The Cuccinelli’s of the political world will never
understand this: what you do to get into office is just as important as what
you do while in office. This, among many reasons, is why Cuccinelli doesn’t
deserve to be Virginia’s next governor.
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