The Office of the State Inspector General said an assistant to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli inappropriately used Commonwealth resources to provide improper legal advice to two energy producers in Virginia in a report released last Tuesday.
The revelation comes as the gubernatorial election between Republican candidate Cuccinelli and Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe inches ever closer.
The Inspector General found that Senior Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pigeon surpassed her constitutional role and provided litigation strategy to EQT Production and CNX Gas, two energy companies that were fighting lawsuits from southwest Virginia residents earlier in the year who claimed they were cheated out of royalty payments for natural gas drilled on their properties.
College Republicans Chair Elizabeth Minneman, a third-year College student, said the OSIG report did not implicate Cuccinelli in any wrongdoing and was inappropriately identified as a campaign issue.
“[This is a] desperate attempt by the McAuliffe campaign to make Cuccinelli look bad, even though this action taken by the [Assistant Attorney General] isn’t related to Cuccinelli,” Minneman said.
The McAuliffe campaign indeed released a statement attacking Cuccinelli’s credibility Tuesday. McAuliffe spokesperson Josh Schwerin said the scandal leaves open whether Cuccinelli was doing a political favor for a major donor.
“Ken Cuccinelli, who received over $100,000 in campaign contributions from one of these energy companies, should immediately return the money he received and show that he’s willing to put his own agenda aside to do what’s best for Virginia,” Schwerin said in a statement.
Center for Politics Spokesperson Geoffrey Skelley said in an email the McAuliffe statement was intended to target specific demographics in the lead-up to the Nov. 5 elections.
“The McAuliffe campaign is hoping to use this issue to hold Cuccinelli’s margins down in southwest Virginia, an area that overwhelmingly supported Mitt Romney in 2012,” Skelley said.
The Cuccinelli campaign released its own statement, denying Cuccinelli’s knowledge or involvement in the incident. Cuccinelli spokeswoman Anna Nix focused on McAuliffe’s previous wrongdoings.
“[McAuliffe attempted to cover-up] two federal investigations involving GreenTech Automotive, [and] the revelations that he profited from the death of terminally ill people,” Nix said in the statement.
GreenTech Automotive, an environmentally-friendly car company founded by McAuliffe, faces two federal investigations, one on claims that it could guarantee returns to investors and another on allegations that it received inappropriate treatment from the Department of Homeland Security. According to McAuliffe, he had no knowledge of the federal investigation and is no longer affiliated with the company.
Both Minneman and University Democrats President Madeline DuCharme, a third-year College student, agree the Inspector Generals’ revelation will be a minor issue in the decisions of voters on Election Day. Both students said, however, voters are getting tired of the back and forth negativity between the candidates.
“My main worry is that [the attacks] will hurt down-ticket races,” DuCharme said of student voting in the upcoming election. “If they’re turned off by all the negativity, I’m afraid they won’t vote at all.”
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