It’s after Labor Day and McAuliff only has campaign offices in Blacksburg and Roanoke.
Cuccinelli’s Attorney General’s office employee remains undisciplined for secretly advising a CONSOL gas subsidiary in a suit against the energy company brought by thousands (if a “class action” is granted, and it looks likely) of Virginia landowners. This nefarious action to undermine the citizens’ case “shocked” the Federal judge hearing the case.
The Bristol Herald Courier has pounded on the point that energy companies are not paying landowners for the gas sucked from underneath them. A BHC reporter received a Pulitzer prize for breaking the story several years ago. The paper has run columns of ink on this case.
This legal battle is a defining fairness issue that virtually all Southwest Virginians with a political pulse have heard about. We see it as a classical example of the “big guys screwing the little guys.” Knowledge of this issue in pervasive not only in the coalfields but also the nearby agricultural valleys.
No, McAuliffe and the other statewide Democratic candidates are not going to win in Southwest Virginia, but this issue is potent, soils the whole Republican ticket, and could effectively cut into Republican majorities on Nov. 5th. Taking the issue to Southwest Virginians in a retail political campaign would also help Mark Herring who is unknown in these parts.
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