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| McAuliffe Criticized For Ties to Lobbyist |
| 2009-03-27 |
| Terry McAuliffe came under fire from a Democratic opponent in the race for Virginia governor yesterday for accepting fundraising help from a top Republican lobbyist -- the sharpest attack yet targeting McAuliffe's history as a Washington political insider. Democrat Brian Moran chastised McAuliffe for teaming up Tuesday with Ed Rogers, a lobbyist and frequent TV commentator who carried the Republican message last year with pointed references to President Obama's middle name, Hussein. The jab from Moran, an Alexandria lawyer, represented the first skirmish in a three-way Democratic primary that is likely to become increasingly sharp-edged as Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath seek to offset McAuliffe's high-wattage personality and ability to raise money. It was also the first of what are likely to be numerous attempts before the June 9 vote to turn the political career of McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, into a liability. Moran's campaign manager, Andrew Roos, said that McAuliffe's willingness to take money from a Republican operative who fought Obama is "unconscionable" and "no different than having a fundraiser with Rush Limbaugh." But a fundraiser Tuesday hosted in part by Rogers illustrates something else, too, Roos said: McAuliffe's deep ties to the political culture of Washington and its lobbying industry. "These are the people that have made 'lobbyist' a bad word for so many Americans," Roos said. McAuliffe's campaign responded swiftly, saying that such fundraisers are essential if he is to gather enough money to compete in the fall against former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, the presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee. Spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith said McAuliffe's Washington ties are irrelevant in a campaign that is about Virginia and in which he has promised to produce jobs and limit the money he takes from companies receiving federal bailout funds. "Terry McAuliffe has a long history of standing up to corporate corruption, including throwing Enron lobbyists out of his office at the DNC," Smith said. A Deeds spokeswoman, Brooke Borkenhagen, said the skirmish will hurt the party. "The stakes are too high in this election." At issue was a fundraiser Tuesday at the offices of the BGR Group, a lobbying firm, in Northwest Washington. The invitation advertised a "recommended minimum" donation of $1,000, and it featured 11 event chairs, including Rogers, who helped found BGR as a Republican-leaning company in the 1990s. McAuliffe's campaign said that BGR is a "bipartisan" firm and that all of the other event chairs were Democrats, including longtime McAuliffe friend Jonathan Mantz, former national finance director for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mantz was the principal host of the event, he and others said. |
| Posted by:Fred |