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Updated: Terry McAuliffe gears up to buy the Virginia governor's office

(UPDATE: After a two-month tour of Virginia, Terry was so excited about 10 more months of touring Virginia that he couldn't wait until Jan. 7 to announce his prefabricated decision to run for governor of the commonwealth. So he did it on Jan. 3 instead.)

Here's the bad news for Virginia Republicans, who once ruled the commonwealth politically: There are no limits whatsoever on how much a person or union, say, can give to any one candidate.

Here's the good news for Virginia Republicans: Terry McAuliffe, the ex-chair of the Democratic National Committee, the political powerhouse, is probably running for governor there.

Terry McAuliffe with Hillary Clinton

Now, if Terry the Tiger's candidacy is good news for the GOP, that tells you how bad things are. The Washington Post had a fascinating examination of  McAuliffe's cannonball into the political pond of Virginia.

Now that he's done raising gazillions of millions for both Bill and Hillary Clinton, who lost anyway, McAuliffe is doing a fair bit of money-vacuuming now on his own. Without hardly trying, he's already cornered the support of the state's billionaire Randal J. Kirk, who's given, oh, say, about $660,000 to Gov. Tim Kaine just in the last 36 months.

In the last 18 years, McAuliffe has raised nearly $940 million between the Clintons and the DNC. That's even more than the magic new guy. But, of course, he did it in a much shorter time and is busy changing the way things are done next door in Washington as soon as he's inaugurated Jan. 20.

Speaking of time, McAuliffe says he'll announce on Jan. 7 what his plans are. Gee, whaddya think?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press

 
Comments () | Archives (3)

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Wow,
This was as bad as Palin's Constitution response, or the Miss Teen USA South Carolina geography response.

Hillary just wrote off 13 million because McAuliffe was
unable to live up to his promise of getting all the $ to pay
for her deficit. Besides this guy is a compulsive liar with
close ties to the Illinois democrat mafia Virginia deserves
much better.

Oh Jeez, this smiling sleazeball telegraphs the slime. Dear God, what happened to the home of Washington, Jefferson, Lee, and a few more presidents (Wilson not included) ? God help us get a VIRGINIAN as Governor.


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About the Columnist
A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Andrew Malcolm has served on the L.A. Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four. Read more.
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