For all the candidates' pronouncements on the issues, the governor's election in Virginia has morphed into a sorry lesson for voters in how political favoritism for insiders undermines public trust. After months of disclosures and controversy, Gov. Bob McDonnell is busy returning and repaying more than $150,000 in gifts and loans to a donor who enjoyed access to the statehouse and Mr. McDonnell's support for his dietary supplement business.
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Fortunately, the Republican governor is term-limited and can't run again. His generous friend, Jonnie Williams Sr., was found by The Washington Post to have paid a $15,000 catering bill for the wedding of the governor's daughter while extending $120,000 in assistance to a business venture owned by McDonnell family members. Federal and state investigations are under way.
Voters might say good riddance to the McDonnell administration except that the same Mr. Williams also supported Mr. McDonnell's aspiring successor, Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, a Republican who received $18,000 in gifts, including stays at Mr. Williams's vacation home. Mr. Cuccinelli, like Mr. McDonnell, denies any lapse into quid-pro-quo corruption.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, might be benefiting from all this except that he is facing questions about whether he sought favors from the Department of Homeland Security for an electric car company he founded. Foreign investors who ponied up $500,000 in start-up money were eligible under immigration law for special visas. The question is whether Mr. McAuliffe — a "first friend" during Bill Clinton's presidency — sought special treatment in the granting of these visas because of his connections. Mr. McAuliffe helped arrange a meeting in 2011 with homeland security officials, and the department eventually approved visas for more than 50 green cards for foreigners who made investments totaling $25 million, according to government records.
Though Mr. McAuliffe quietly resigned as chairman of the company, GreenTech Automotive, last December, the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into promises company officials made in soliciting overseas investors. Republican critics, looking ahead to the 2016 presidential election, are gleeful that Anthony Rodham, brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, was hired by Mr. McAuliffe to oversee investor recruitment.
Meat-and-potato issues important to voters should be the focus of any campaign. This is increasingly impossible in Virginia, where the storyline is the parallel investigations into the backdoor ways politicians pursue power.
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