By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Virginia State Judge Margaret Spencer has an interesting decision tomorrow – one that could affect more than the criminal case involving the executive chef for Virginia’s Governor, Bob McDonnell. On the third floor of Richmond’s John Marshall Courts Building, Spencer will hear that Chef Todd Schneider was denied due process of law because the prosecutor at the time, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, had a political and personal conflict of interest that influenced his decision. Schneider’s lawyers, Steven D. Benjamin and Betty Layne DesPortes, contend that Cuccinelli, who is the GOP candidate for governor, was tied personally and politically to a Virginia businessman whose crumbling empire has launched FBI and State Police investigations as well as political headaches for McDonnell. Those ties, and Cuccinelli’s representation of McDonnell, made criminal charges against Schneider for allegedly stealing food from the Governor’s Mansion a political witch hunt, they say. They have asked for a complete dismissal of all charges.
The whole mess started when Republican bigwig, Jonnie Williams Sr., wanted to promote his dietary supplement company, Star Scientific, Inc. Mesmerizing Virginia First Lady and former Redskin cheerleader, Maureen McDonnell, with the pitch, Williams gradually developed ties with the governor and even used the Executive Mansion to pitch his anti-inflammatory supplement, Anatabloc, in a now infamous luncheon that the Governor attended despite his staff’s misgivings. Nothing scandalous as far as that went, but rumors began to circulate that Williams was doing more than just plying his wares and providing a few free samples. It is now confirmed that Williams gave the McDonnell family thousands of dollars in “gifts” — including a $15,000 check to pay for the wedding of the Governor’s daughter, a $6,500 Rolex watch the Governor won’t talk about, and a lavish New York City shopping spree for the governor’s wife including a $10,000 suede jacket — that were never reported. Virginia’s disclosure laws require elected officials to declare any gift valued at $50 or more, but does not require that gifts to the family of the governor be reported. Those gifts were in addition to the roughly $110,000.00 in disclosed campaign contributions he gave to McDonnell’s run for governor. However, that kind of cozying up by cash doesn’t sit well in Virginia, where the state’s reputation for good government is sacrosanct.
The confirmation of the undisclosed gift giving came from — you guessed it — Todd Schneider. When confronted with claims of felony embezzlement by the Capitol Police, Schneider went straight to the Attorney General’s Office of Ken Cuccinelli as well as the FBI and sang that all was not well in the Governor’s Mansion. He told them that state resources were being used improperly and that he could prove it. He also said the theft charges were bogus and that Maureen McDonnell had allowed him to take food in lieu of cash for serving as her personal shopper and handling catering events at the mansion like the Star Scientific product luncheon. The FBI launched an investigation; but Cuccinelli kept prosecuting until the Grand Jury returned four indictments.
Schneider’s lawyers were aghast and filed papers with Judge Spencer asking Cuccinelli to recuse himself. The Attorney General refused but then abruptly changed course turning over the investigation to Richmond Commonwealth Attorney, Mike Herring, a no-nonsense state prosecutor known for scrupulous adherence to the rules and fair play. But Cuccinelli did something else at the same time the announcement to recuse was made that only deepened the scandal. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, the Republican candidate told reporters that he asked Herring to investigate him, too because he ” neglected to disclose an additional $5,000 in gifts from Williams, including airfare to New York City and two stays at his Smith Mountain Lake vacation home, one of which included a catered Thanksgiving dinner for the attorney general and his family.” Ouch. Now two of the top three Virginia Republican officials had fingerprints all over the Star Scientific mess and were faced with charges of succumbing to gift giving. Only Bill Bolling, in the largely ceremonial post of Lieutenant Governor, was spared.
And what was the Star Scientific mess? Well, it seems that Mr. Williams’ company has been losing money for ten years. Anatabloc was supposed to change all that. He reputedly owes the state a cool $700,000.00 in unpaid taxes and, to make matters doubly worse, he is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his business dealings. That’s not exactly the résumé you want for First Family of Virginia’s BFF.
And what about the election year fall out? Political guru Larry Sabato says that if this trial goes forward in October, just weeks before the election, a power shift could happen in once reliably red Virginia. “The last thing the Republican ticket needs is for the final weeks of the campaign to be dominated by scandalous headlines about the incumbent GOP governor and his family,” said Sabato, who heads the respected Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “And even though Cuccinelli is certainly not close to the McDonnells, he has ties to this case … as well as to Jonnie Williams.”
McDonnell has fought back saying, “”I think it’s important that the people of Virginia know that nothing has been done with regard to my relationship with Mr. Williams or his company Star Scientific to give any kind of special benefits to him or his company.” But Virginians have become wary of McDonnell’s protestations especially since he clammed up about the Rolex.
Virginians don’t seem to like their choice for governor but they seem to like Cuccinelli less. The Virginia Democratic Party is running Washington power broker, Terry McAuliffe, as its candidate for governor. Former head of the Democratic National Committee and campaign chairman for Bill Clinton, he is the classic DC insider. But DC insiders don’t play well in Virginia even sons of famous football coaches. Just ask last go-rounds unsuccessful senatorial candidate, George Allen. Still McAuliffe holds a 3 point edge in latest Rasmussen poll but within the margin of error. And Cuccinelli appears to be taking the hit in his approval ratings according to a poll by Public Policy Polling which shows 44% of those polled expressing a negative view of the GOP candidate. That’s a full eleven points worse than McAuliffe.
“The governor’s race is shaping up exactly as expected — voters don’t care for either Ken Cuccinelli or Terry McAuliffe,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “But at this point they have a bigger problem with Cuccinelli than they do with McAuliffe.”
That’s a recipe for disaster in anyone’s cookbook regardless of who is doing the cooking.
Source: Richmond Times Dispatch; Washington Times
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
rafflaw:
I dont agree. how many elites are there? How many of us are there? Lets say there are 50 million poor [about 15%] and 3 million elites [about 1%]. That leaves about 250 million people who can donate. Granted not all of them vote or donate so lets say 50% so that leaves 125 million people. If they all gave 10 dollars we are talking $1,250,000,000.00 [thats 1.25 billion]. that is a lot of cash with which to make political hay.
People need to become engaged in the political process, if they dont care then what is another law going to do?
Bron,
if we do not get money out of politics, you won’t have any clean politicians on the national level, who will obtain the necessary funding to compete against the corporate and secret 501c4 money.
A new party is a good idea. It is already much harder for independents or small parties to get on the ballot in nearly all states. This situation isn’t likely to change since the rules are made by the two parties that share power. But the Supremes made it even worse.
Ralph Nader’s PA petitions were successfully challenged. Now, Ralph is no dummy. He has probably put himself on the line for people power more often and more consistently than just about anyone else.
You all know about the voter rights rollback, but there was also a chilling decision for candidates.
http://www.thereedsmithwatch.com/nader-criticizes-supreme-court-decisions-for-failing-to-protect-candidate-and-voter-rights/
excerpt:
In an unsigned order entered one day before the Shelby County decision, the Supreme Court declined to hear Nader’s own appeal from a decision of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The decision permits the law firm Reed Smith LLP to collect $81,102.19 in litigation costs it requested from a Pennsylvania state court after challenging the nomination papers Nader filed there, as an independent candidate in the 2004 presidential election.
“Requiring candidates to pay litigation costs to private parties who challenge their nomination petitions is no different from requiring voters to pay poll taxes,” Nader said. “Time and again, the Supreme Court has held that states may not impose mandatory financial burdens on candidates or voters as a condition of their participation in elections.”
The Pennsylvania decision was the first time in American history that a candidate was ordered to pay such costs. As Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor concluded in a dissent that has never been rebutted, the majority misread the applicable statute, which only authorizes the imposition of costs against challengers, not defending candidates. Further, the Justices in the majority failed to disclose that Reed Smith had previously given each of them thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, while majority opinion author Justice Sandra Schultz Newman failed to disclose her acceptance of a $5,000 contribution from Reed Smith while the case was pending. Finally, then-Chief Justice Ralph Cappy, who voted with the majority, failed to disclose that Reed Smith was representing him as his defense counsel in a state ethics investigation during the proceedings.
Nader said these blatant conflicts of interest required not only disclosure but recusal.
bRON,
You missed the point. The disaster is not the candidates but that the election has become a cheap realty show.
Take me off your list
Sent from my iPad
bLOUISE:
why is it a disaster if Terry M gets elected?
Mark,
I think the technical term chefs use to describe “boiling down” is “reduction”. 😀
Interesting story of political shenanigans though.
“Old Dominion; Mother of Presidents; Mother of States” are the nicknames of the state with “the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World” (a.k.a. “The Virginia General Assembly”).
There must be a reason why corruption does not evolve away, but instead, lingers and persists, under the perceived reality, like ancient toxins (The Germ Theory – of Government – 7).
Perhaps they will read their Bibles, being fundies and all, and give new meaning to “Where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15).
“The Virginia Democratic Party is running Washington power broker, Terry McAuliffe, as its candidate for governor.” (Mark E.)
I remember reading about McAuliffe’s intentions to run again back in Oct. or Nov. of ’12 after Warner gave his okay. The general opinion as stated by many then was that he didn’t stand a chance. (McAuliffe lost the Democratic nomination to run for the same position back in 2009).
As usual, the general opinion as stated by many, failed to take into account the looming “scandal” and the manipulation of timing those wishing to further McAuliffe’s chances would employ in bringing that “scandal” to the public.
My sincere sympathies to the voters in Virginia for this really is a disaster.
ROBIN H:
I disagree. The elite can be beaten if we quit voting for politicians who are more worried about getting elected than following the Constitution.
People or at least most people are republican or democrat by birth and it requires no intellectual effort to just vote for the party of familiarity. This man, Sarvis came to his views, most likely, through intellectual effort. I doubt he is going to be beholden to the elites of either party and he will do what is right per his philosophy.
That Dogalogue Machine got the first word wrong. I barked “too” not “two” and not numeral 2.
Two many cooks spoil the broth, or the sloth.
I’ll just say, duopoly, and leave it there.
@ Bron just so you know and understand it doesnt matter who gets into the office.. they will be doing the elites business or none at all. they either get them thru blackmail, ex… “the boystown scandal”, or thru bribery. and if you turn down either one you get destroyed i would say both cuccinelli and mcdonnell both upset their handliers and this is their punishment as soon as they straighten up and fly right. watch how fast the scandal along with the chef goes away
“Robert Sarvis, 36, is a native of Virginia. He was born at Fairfax Hospital, grew up in West Springfield, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology. He has earned degrees in mathematics from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, a J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law, and a Master’s in economics from George Mason University. He has a diverse professional background, with experience as an entrepreneur and small-business owner, a software engineer and mobile-app developer, a math teacher, and a lawyer. Rob is married to a pediatrician from Greenville, MS, with whom he is raising two beautiful children in Annandale, Virginia.”
Brilliant too, I know who gets my vote this year and in 2014 I am voting libertarian for congress. Screw both parties, they are dirty.
What is it with politicians?
Did they forget to take remedial ethics or are they just stupid?
http://lpva.com/HTML/ourCandidates.php
http://robertsarvis.com/
So let’s buck the two-party system, bring people together, and build a Virginia that’s open-minded and open for business. ”
Looks like Cuccinelli is in a real pickle.
Time to vote for the independent.
Cuccinelli is as dirty as McDonnell and the people of Virginia should do the right thing and send him packing. This the best way that the Virginia can tell politicians of every stripe that money should stay out of politics.