The Washington Post has an excellent article this morning that sheds more light on Terry McAuliffe's business background.
Terry McAuliffe has a simple message for Virginia: Elect him governor this year and he will bring jobs, because he has more business experience than anyone else in the race.
Yet McAuliffe's business pedigree is not so simple. He is a dealmaker who made millions from investments. And many of his biggest deals came in partnership with prominent donors and politicians, creating a portrait over the years of a Washington insider who got rich as he rose to power within the Democratic Party.
McAuliffe is, at his core, a salesman -- and even called himself a "huckster" in his autobiography. In his bid for governor this year, McAuliffe is selling the idea that his uncanny knack for making money can bring prosperity to all Virginia. But at a time when public mistrust of millionaires and politicians is high, that strategy could backfire.
It doesn't end there, though--they refer to Terry as a showman and a salesman. IMO, there's nothing wrong with having a good, honest, businessman as Governor, but Terry's record would clearly be detrimental to the state.
But they belie the complexity of a business career built mostly on intricate land deals and dot-com investments, often with wealthy political donors -- and sometimes with no jobs to show for it.
...
For McAuliffe, politics and business have always been intertwined.
He was Richard Gephardt's national finance chairman and later gave Gephardt a loan from the bank he led, Federal City National Bank. He worked with then-House Whip Tony Coelho on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 1980s and later worked with him at a Washington real estate brokerage, the Boland Group.
...
McAuliffe made $16 million developing a shopping center in Florida after persuading a top labor leader he knew through the Democratic Party to invest $40 million from the union's pension fund.
I don't want a Governor who views his election as his next big business move. It sounds like no matter what Terry's job is, he's always looking out for himself first:
One of those was Carl Lindner, who headed Chiquita Brands International and the insurance company American Financial Group. Although Lindner is known for supporting Republican causes, McAuliffe said he introduced him to Clinton and encouraged him to donate.
About the same time, McAuliffe was also partnering with Lindner in the purchase of American Heritage Homes, a home-building company in central Florida.
Perhaps the most stinging part is this:
At a candidates' forum in December, in response to Moran's claim to be the only candidate who had run a business and raised a family in Virginia, McAuliffe boasted of launching five businesses in Virginia.
It turned out that all five are investment partnerships, with no employees, registered to his home address in McLean.
Will someone please explain how this is creating jobs, and how Terry has been beneficial to the state of Virginia?
I'll point out that McAuliffe doesn't seem to have a real response to this--at this point his supporters both on comments and blogs themselves have nothing to reference but his own web site. From a memorandum issued by the McAuliffe campaign and referenced at Blue Virginia:
If you are interested in more information, please click http://www.terrymcauliffe.com/...
Yes, because Terry's campaign is going to be impartial about Terry McAuliffe. I guess everything those journalists said must be wrong and Terry's right! |
