This morning, Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling was on the John Fredericks Show. His analysis of the gubernatorial debate wasn’t particularly exciting or interesting, frankly, but he did have some choice words regarding Ken Cuccinelli’s attacks on Terry McAuliffe for Greentech Automotive’s decision to locate in Mississippi. John Fredericks led in with the excellent question, “at the end of the day, who cares?” Bolling responded:
Well, I’ve always felt that argument that they make about Greentech going to Mississippi is an invalid argument. Frankly, we would have loved to have had that project in Virginia…we’d like to have every project in Virginia, but we know that we’re not going to get every project. And the truth is, Mississippi offered Greentech a VERY attractive financial incentive package; it’s one that we would not have been able to meet.
And I think – as McAuliffe pointed out correctly on Saturday – he had a fiduciary responsibility to the investors of the company to take the company where it made the most business sense for them to be. And in this particular case that turned out to be Mississippi. I actually thought that Mr. Cuccinelli kind of walked into one by raising that argument, because McAuliffe was ready for it. And if you remember, that’s when [McAuliffe] responded — and by the way, you [Ken Cuccinelli] had a fiduciary duty to the people of Virginia to prosecute the tax claim against Star Scientific. And at a time when you should have been taking them to court, they were taking you to New York City on their private jet.
Ouch, that’s gotta hurt, coming from the state’s 2nd-ranking Republican. In addition, Bolling also noted that McAuliffe is likely to outraise Cuccinelli “at least 2:1 or 3:1,” and “that’s important” for the ability to communicate with voters. Finally, Bolling opined that the current scandals in Virginia involving Star Scientific “just doesn’t paint Republicans in a positive light,” and “that’s probably an advantage for McAuliffe.” Overall right now, Bolling’s assessment of the race? “Advantage McAuliffe, maybe by the 4 or 5 points that the polls reflect.” Not bad, I’ll take it! 🙂
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