I just got off a media call with Mike Casey of NextGen Climate Action Committee Virginia, announcing this new ad hitting Ken Cuccinelli on his massive CONSOL Energy conflict of interest. According to Casey, the ad will run in the Richmond, Roanoke, and Norfolk markets for the next 10 days starting tomorrow morning, with a total purchase of $500,000.
On the call, Casey ripped into Cuccinelli, saying that although Cuccinelli attempted to dispense with the Jonnie Williams scandal a bit earlier this week, the “CONSOL scandal is far, far worse – it’s a lot more money, it’s a gross violation of public trust, and it involves an active state investigation into his office’s conduct.” In fact, Casey added, “it appears that the only reason why [Cuccinelli himself] is not being investigated is because of the loophole in Virginia’s Inspector General law.” Casey continued:
…as Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli wasn’t just enriching himself with luxury gifts and meals from Jonnie Williams, while pleading poverty…when he was faced with calls to return that money on a $194,000-per-year salary, he was taking enormous amounts of campaign cash from an out-of-state fossil fuel company while his office helped it rip off the people that elected him…Campaign shake-ups, 30-minute Hail Mary commercials, and a YouTube apology video is not going to address the very ugly timing of contributions and favors in the CONSOL scandal…
Ken Cuccinelli must release all of his office’s email contacts with CONSOL, he needs to return this dirty money, and he needs to stop ducking questions…He has run from the media, he has run from watchdog groups, and he has run from citizens – it is ridiculous…Ken Cuccinelli’s corruption is making us look like some sort of banana republic…This commercial is not going to be the last [Cuccinelli] will hear [on this issue]…
He’s in deep trouble in Southwest Virginia and he should be, because that’s where most of the people who were hurt by his actions live, and this commercial is designed to ensure that the rest of the state zeroes in on these questions and presses him for answers. We have every confidence that this is becoming not just a Southwest Virginia issue but a statewide issue…
…Being a climate denier and appearing to rent out the top law enforcement office [in Virginia] to an out-of-state fossil fuel company go hand and hand. It says something about your world view and your sense of priorities…relative to mainstream Virginia…The question is, are we going to be helped [in creating clean economy jobs] in Virginia, or are we going to read about them being created in China?…
In the world of Ken Cuccinelli, when you deny basic climate science, when you waste our money beating up on our flagship institution because you’ve got some strange vendetta against one of the top climatologists in the country, and you think that an out-of-state coal, oil and gas company should be helped to rip off Virginians, it’s a pretty clear composite picture of who you are as a potential governor, and it’s not a pretty picture.
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