Let?s start at the top ? Kilgore?s #1 campaign contributor. That would be this inside-the-beltway Political Action Group: Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC.
Digging a little deeper, looks like this PAC is just a front group for the Washington D.C.-based Republican Governors? Association, which actually created the PAC and has provided all of its funding.
So, it?s the RGA that has been Jerry?s biggest campaign contributor, to the tune of over $350,000. And what?s the big deal about the RGA?
Well, the RGA is waist deep in the DeLay-Abramoff illegal fundraising machine, which has lead to indictments from Florida to Texas. Read on:
Just a few weeks after [Tom] DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority sent its $190,000 check to the RNC [which led to his indictment], one of DeLay's former aides, Michael Scanlon, showed up at the Republican Governors Association with checks totaling $500,000.Scanlon was working with Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff on behalf of Indian gaming tribes. Abramoff was recently indicted on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud, and Scanlon and Abramoff are under investigation for fraud in connection with their lobbying for the tribes.
Honest leadership for Virginia? Sounds like a misnamed group to me if Kilgore?s top campaign contributions are coming from a source connected to the indictment rich team of DeLay and Abramoff.
The questions for the media to ask Kilgore: what does he have to say about this arrangement? Seeing how DeLay and Abramoff have been indicted for their improper campaign fundraising ? which Kilgore may now be benefiting from ? what does he have to say about them? Any chance he?ll return this tainted money? If not, can he prove it?s not tainted? ?Honest leadership? deserves some honest answers given what?s going on in the DeLay world of politics these days.