Terry McAuliffe’s two Democratic rivals worked to drag him off message at the last debate of Virginia’s gubernatorial primary season with questions on his campaign promises, fundraising and business background.
McAuliffe’s chief antagonist, former Del. Brian Moran, unleashed an especially barbed review of his personal history, painting the former Democratic National Committee chairman as too tainted to serve as Virginia’s chief executive.
The attacks, however, appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment that McAuliffe, flush with cash and fresh off a round of national endorsements, has begun to run away with the nomination with only weeks until the June 9 primary.
Because McAuliffe, Moran and the third challenger, state. Sen. Creigh Deeds, have scant policy differences to distinguish one from the other, the three instead have taken aim at each other’s records.
McAuliffe during the debate broke his pledge to not attack his rivals — needling Moran over political contributions from payday lenders that undermine his promise to drive the businesses out of the state.
But it was McAuliffe’s war chest that became the principal target of the debate, which was held at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus.
Especially at issue was his promise not to accept funds from Virginia energy company Dominion Power, which didn’t stop him from accepting cash raised during a fundraiser hosted by the monopoly utility’s retired chief executive, Tom Capps.
In light of the fundraiser, Deeds called McAuliffe’s promise “disingenuous.”
Moran set his sights on McAuliffe’s past claim to have created more than “100,000 jobs,” a boast that McAuliffe scaled back to “thousands” of jobs during the debate.
Moran also invoked the Global Crossing scandal, in which McAuliffe cashed out $18 million from a $100,000 investment before the telecommunications company went belly-up.
Moran’s campaign rolled out its first television ad Tuesday evening to coincide with the debate, framing the election as a choice between “McAuliffe working insider deals for himself, or Brian Moran’s hard work for us.”
McAuliffe, at the debate, rejected the attacks and repeatedly steered the conversation back to his five-chapter business plan for the commonwealth.
“These are the divisive politics of destruction that people are sick and tired of,” he said.
The victor in the primary will face Republican Robert McDonnell, who recently stepped down as Virginia attorney general to focus on his campaign.
